Rahul alleges ‘vote theft’ in Maha CM constituency, EC responds

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday intensified his allegations of electoral fraud in Maharashtra, focusing on CM Devendra Fadnavis’s Nagpur South West constituency. Gandhi alleged an “8% surge in voter count over just five months” and claimed thousands of unverifiable names on the rolls, calling it “vote theft.”

Amid the allegations, the poll panel has written to Gandhi, inviting him to meet the three-member panel to discuss any “issues", while reiterating that the polls are carried out as per electoral laws.

Citing an opinion piece, which he had written in an English daily on June 7, where he had raised questions about the electoral rolls, voter turnout data and the release of CCTV footage of polls, the ECI wrote to him on June 12, saying that all polls are held strictly as per laws passed by Parliament and rules, and the entire exercise involves thousands of personnel, including booth-level agents appointed by political parties.

In a post on X, Gandhi on Tuesday shared a news article, calling for the release of digital voter rolls and CCTV footage. “In Maharashtra CM’s constituency, the voter list grew by 8% in just 5 months. Some booths saw a 20-50% surge," Gandhi said on X.

BLOs reported unknown individuals casting votes. Media uncovered thousands of voters with no verified address," the Rae Bareli MP added."And the EC? Silent – or complicit. These aren’t isolated glitches. This is vote theft. The cover-up is the confession," he further alleged.

In retaliation, Fadnavis in his post on social media said there are several assembly constituencies where voters went up by 8 per cent and candidates from the Congress were elected.

Replying to Gandhi’s post on X, Fadnavis said, “Jhuth bole kauwa kaate koi kavwe se dariyo" (The crow bites when you lie, Fear the black crow)."

He pointed to other constituencies such as Malad West and North Nagpur, where Congress and NCP(SP) won despite similar voter increases.

Taking potshots at Gandhi, the Maharashtra CM said it would have been better if you had spoken to your own party’s long-time associates like Aslam Shaikh, Vikas Thakre, and Nitin Raut before this tweet. At least the Congress wouldn’t have performed so poorly due to a lack of communication".

Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also termed the allegations made by Gandhi as “unfortunate".

“Rahul Gandhi repeatedly makes such allegations… The EC has summoned him. If he has any problem, he should go to the EC or the court. This is unfortunate. He did not make such allegations when Congress won in Karnataka or Telangana. During Lok Sabha elections, they (opposition) got more seats in Maharashtra, even then everything was fine," Shinde told reporters.

Later in the day, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra said in a post on X that copies of electoral rolls were shared with all recognised political parties prior to last year Maharashtra assembly elections.

India