NEW DELHI: As the row over ‘Maharashtra poll match fixing’ allegations continues, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday urged the poll body to announce the exact date by which EC will hand over the electoral roll data for Haryana and Maharashtra from 2009.
Tagging a news report, which said that the EC has cleared the way for sharing electoral roll data for Haryana and Maharashtra from 2009 to 2024, Gandhi wrote on X that ‘it is a first good step taken by the EC to hand over the electoral roll data’. He also sought to know when the data will be handed over in a digital, machine-readable format.
The news report claimed that the EC has cleared the way for sharing the electoral-roll data for Haryana and Maharashtra from 2009 to 2024, following an assurance it gave to the Delhi High Court earlier in the year.
There was, however, no official word from the EC on the reported move as yet.
Gandhi said, “Good first step taken by EC to hand over voter rolls. Can the EC please announce the exact date by which this data will be handed over in a digital, machine-readable format?” he asked.
In December last year, Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala moved Delhi High Court seeking the electoral rolls for elections held in Haryana and Maharashtra between 2009 and 2024.
Last week, the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of Haryana and Maharashtra passed orders on Surjewala’s plea to allow him to obtain electoral roll data from relevant district and election officers.
After Gandhi sought the EC’s response on his article alleging rigging in last year’s Maharashtra Assembly election, sources in the poll authority said on Sunday that the constitutional body would respond only if the leader of opposition writes to it directly. However, Congress has refuted the charges citing two formal letters to EC on 10th December and 7th February on the same.
Echoing the same charges, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said, “The article authored by Rahul Gandhi, published in multiple national and regional newspapers, raises grave questions about the transparency and integrity of the electoral process, particularly in the context of the recently concluded 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections,”.
“In response to this article, a letter surfaced purportedly from the Election Commission of India. However, we categorically state that the authenticity of this letter remains questionable. As Gandhi rightly pointed out addressing the ECI: “You are a Constitutional body. Releasing unsigned, evasive notes to intermediaries is not the way to respond to serious questions,” Kharge wrote on X.
