Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the BJP of securing a victory through large-scale electoral rigging in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections and alleged that the same would be repeated in the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls and then anywhere the BJP is losing.
In a post on X, LoP Gandhi said that, Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy and listed out the alleged sequence through which it was done.
“How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy. My article shows how this happened, step by step: 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 said on X.
Terming electoral rigging as poison for democracy, Rahul Gandhi said that rigging damages institutions and destroys 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 damages institutions and destroy public faith in the result. All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers. Because the match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing. Match-fixed elections are a poison for any democracy,” he added in the post.
BJP National President JP Nadda has rejected Rahul Gandhi’s allegation, terming it a fake narrative. He added Rahul Gandhi is shamelessly “peddling lies” as he knows that defeat in Bihar is certain.
“Rahul Gandhi’s latest article is a blueprint for manufacturing fake narratives, owing to his sadness and desperation of losing election after election. Read how Rahul Gandhi lied about Maharashtra: Here’s how he does it, step by step: Step 1: Congress Party gets defeated election after election due to his antics. Step 2: Instead of introspecting, he cooks up bizarre conspiracies and cries rigging. Step 3: Ignores all facts and data. Step 4: Defames institutions with zero proof. Step 5: Hopes for headlines over facts. Despite being exposed time and again, he shamelessly keeps peddling lies. And, he is doing this because a defeat in Bihar is certain. Democracy doesn’t need drama. It needs truth,” Nadda said on X.
In the 2024 Maharashtra assembly polls, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a landslide victory, while the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was reduced to just 50 seats.
BJP leader Amit Malviya also criticised Rahul Gandhi for his allegation and pointed out that when Congress wins an election, they hail the election system as “fair and just,” however, when they lose, they whine and make conspiracy theories.
“It is not that Rahul Gandhi doesn’t understand how the electoral process works. He does very well. But his goal is not clarity, it is chaos. His repeated attempts to sow seeds of doubt and dissension in the minds of voters about our institutional processes are deliberate. When Congress wins — be it in Telangana or Karnataka — the same system is hailed as fair and just. But when they lose — from Haryana to Maharashtra — the whining and conspiracy theories begin, without fail,” Malviya said on X.
Malviya also termed Rahul Gandhi’s allegations an attempt to “systematically erode people’s faith” in the country’s institutions for “political gains.”
“This is straight out of George Soros’ playbook — systematically erode people’s faith in their own institutions, so they can be cracked open from within for political gains. India’s democracy is strong. Its institutions are resilient. And the Indian voter is wise. No amount of manipulation will change that,” he added in the post.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has earlier cleared concerns raised by the Congress party over an unexpected voter spike in the Maharashtra polls, as normal.
ECI in a letter to the Congress Party, had explained how an increase in voter turnout from 5 pm to 11:45 pm is normal as part of the process of aggregation of voter turnout and how there can be fide but inconsequential differences in Votes polled and Votes Counted data.
(With ANI inputs)
