Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the Maharashtra Assembly elections had been "rigged" to favour the BJP and warned that the "same tactics could be repeated" in the upcoming Bihar assembly polls.
The Congress leader once again questioned the conduct of the 2024 Maharashtra polls, in what is arguably his most direct attack yet on the electoral process under the Modi government.
In a post on X, Rahul shared his opinion piece published in a newspaper, writing "How to steal an election?", describing the Maharashtra polls as "a blueprint for rigging democracy" and outlining, step by step, how he claims it was done.
In his post, the LoP outlined what he claimed was a systematic five-step process used to manipulate the Maharashtra Assembly election results.
"My article shows how this happened, step by step," he wrote in his post, before listing: "Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission; Step 2: Add fake voters to the roll; Step 3: Inflate voter turnout; Step 4: Target the bogus voting exactly where BJP needs to win; Step 5: Hide the evidence."
He likened the alleged rigging to "match-fixing," arguing that while "the side that cheats might win the game," such actions “damage institutions and destroy public faith in the result."
"It's not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing - the side that cheats might win the game but will damage institutions and destroy public faith in the result. All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers," the Lok Sabha LoP said.
Rahul warned that the "match-fixing" of Maharashtra would come to Bihar next, where the polls are due later this year, and then "anywhere" the BJP was losing elections.
"Match-fixed elections are a poison for any democracy," he added.
Notably, the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election delivered a sweeping victory for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, which secured 235 seats.
The saffron party emerged as the single-largest party with 132 seats, while alliance partners Shiv Sena and the NCP won 57 and 41 seats respectively, consolidating Mahayuti’s dominance in the state.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a major blow, with the Congress securing just 16 seats, while its allies Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP) won 20 and 10 seats respectively.
Following concerns raised by the Congress over voter turnout data, the Election Commission of India (ECI) issued a detailed clarification, explaining the aggregation process used during the election.
In a letter to the Congress, the ECI had claimed the increase in reported turnout between 5 pm and 11:45 pm was part of standard aggregation procedures. It noted that any discrepancies between votes polled and votes counted were minor and without consequence.
The poll body had also asserted that actual voter turnout figures could not be altered and said no such irregularities occurred in response to allegations of arbitrary additions or deletions in electoral rolls.
