The Congress has doubled down on its allegations of manipulations in the electoral rolls before the Maharashtra Assembly election were held last year.
The party’s fresh salvo came a day before the election to the 70-member Delhi state Assembly was held.
Praveen Chakravarty, chairman, Professionals’ Congress & Data Analytics, shared documents from the Election Commission to drive home the party’s claim after a journalist attempted to fact check the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s speech made on the floor of the Lok Sabha where he said seven lakh voters were added in Maharashtra.
“I realise no point engaging with a troll bhakt in the disguise of a journalist. But nevertheless, these are the facts about Maharashtra voter rolls with EC documents as source,” Chakravarty wrote on his X (formerly known as Twitter) handle.
In his speech on Monday, Rahul Gandhi had said: ““In the five months between the Lok Sabha election and Assembly polls, the voting population of Himachal Pradesh was added to the electoral rolls. Seventy lakh new voters suddenly arrived.”
Rahul had said that the Election Commission should share the data with the Opposition MVA coalition that includes the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP).
BJP MP from Jharkhand Nishikant Dubey has moved a privilege notice against Rahul, claiming that the Leader of opposition the Lok Sabha made misleading claims in the House.
Giving the breakup of the electoral rolls with files from the EC site, Chakravarty wrote: Total Electors: 2019 Vidhan Sabha: 8,98,38,267. 2024 Lok Sabha: 9,30,61,760. 2024 Vidhan Sabha: 9,70,25,119. Increase in 5 years (2024 LS - 2019 VS): 32,23,493. Increase in 5 months (2024 LS - 2024 VS): 39,63,359
Total Voters: 2024 Lok Sabha: 5,71,79,131; 2024 Vidhan Sabha: 6,45,92,508; Increase in voters: 74,13,371.”
In the Lok Sabha election, the Opposition had won 30 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, with the Congress winning the maximum 13 seats.
In the Assembly polls held in November, the BJP won 132 seats while the Congress fared its worst at 16. The MVA partners have alleged that voters were added to the electoral rolls and there was a spike in the voter turnout from the day of polling to counting day.
