Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday shared a recent news report about an unusually high number of voters being added — including many with incomplete addresses — in Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s constituency amid a dispute with the Election Commission of India (EC) over suspected voter fraud.
Rahul posted on X: “In Maharashtra CM’s own constituency, the voter list grew by 8% in just 5 months. Some booths saw a 20-50% surge. BLOs reported unknown individuals casting votes. Media uncovered thousands of voters with no verified address. And the EC? Silent — or complicit. These aren’t isolated glitches. This is vote theft. The cover-up is the confession. That’s why we demand the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage.”
The Congress has alleged that an unusually high number of voters were added in Maharashtra between the Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly elections. The election authorities have repeatedly clarified that this is not unusual and that representatives of the Congress have also been part of the exercise of updating the electoral roll.
In an article published on Monday titled “In 6 months, Fadnavis seat added 29,219 voters. Poll staff claim lapses”, newslaundry.com found an 8.25 per cent increase in the number of voters in Nagpur (South West) — the chief minister’s constituency.
In a random check of 50 polling stations, reporters found 4,393 voters registered with the address columns left blank. Although Fadnavis won by more than 39,000 votes, the Congress reportedly did better in booths with the maximum number of new voters.
The chief minister hit back at Rahul on X, saying: “By the way, for your information, there are more than 25 constituencies in Maharashtra where voter turnout increased by over 8% between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, and Congress (and its allies) won in many of those places.”
The chief electoral officers of Maharashtra and Haryana — states where the Congress has raised objections to the rolls — posted similar statements on X with a chart of dates on which the Congress had received voters’ lists in each district.
