Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has levelled serious allegations against the Election Commission of India, claiming it colluded with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to manipulate the outcome of the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Speaking at a press conference at the new AICC headquarters in Delhi, Gandhi described the refusal to provide a machine-readable voter list and the alleged plan to destroy CCTV footage from polling stations as “deeply suspicious.”
Gandhi pointed to what he called “unusual anomalies” in the voting process, particularly a sharp increase in voter registration and a sudden surge in turnout after 5:30 pm on polling day. “Between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, we saw one crore new voters added in just five months—more than the increase over the last five years,” he said. “This, along with the unexplained late-day voting spike, raised serious doubts.”
According to the Congress MP, these concerns led the Opposition to believe that the polls were manipulated. “In Vidhan Sabha, our alliance was wiped out, and in Lok Sabha, we swept. The contrast is suspicious,” Gandhi said.
He further criticized the Election Commission’s refusal to share the voter list, calling it a “red flag.” “The voter list belongs to the people of India. Why is the Election Commission hiding it from us?” he asked.
Adding to the controversy, Gandhi alleged that the poll body had indicated it would destroy polling-day CCTV footage. “We were told the footage would be deleted. But there were questions over the legitimacy of the late voting surge—our people on the ground confirmed there was no such crowd,” he said.
“These factors led us to believe, with reasonable certainty, that the Election Commission was complicit in helping the BJP steal the election in Maharashtra,” he concluded.
