New Delhi, June 7— Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday intensified his attack on the Election Commission (EC), accusing it of evading serious questions about alleged rigging in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections. In response to EC sources rejecting his charges, Gandhi said that only transparency—not silence—can uphold the institution’s credibility.
“Evasion won’t protect your credibility. Telling the truth will,” Gandhi said in a post on X, urging the EC to stop communicating via unnamed sources and respond directly and publicly. “Dear EC, you are a Constitutional body. Releasing unsigned, evasive notes to intermediaries is not the way to respond to serious questions.”
In a strongly-worded op-ed titled “Match-Fixing Maharashtra”, published in The Indian Express, Gandhi accused the EC of turning a blind eye to “industrial-scale rigging” of the election process. “I’m not talking of small-scale cheating, but of institutional capture and systematic manipulation,” he wrote, laying out a five-step framework for what he described as engineered election fraud.
“How to steal an election?” Gandhi asked. “Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the EC. Step 2: Add fake voters. Step 3: Inflate turnout. Step 4: Target bogus voting in key seats. Step 5: Hide the evidence.”
He alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra election was a “blueprint for rigging democracy” and warned that similar manipulation would happen “anywhere the BJP is losing,” including future polls in Bihar. “Match-fixed elections are a poison for democracy,” he wrote. “The side that cheats may win, but it destroys institutions and public faith.”
Gandhi demanded that the EC publish machine-readable voter rolls and release post-5 pm CCTV footage from all Maharashtra polling booths, asserting that these are “tools to strengthen democracy, not ornaments to be locked away.”
Responding through background briefings, EC sources dismissed Gandhi’s claims as unfounded and misleading. “It is very strange that despite the EC’s detailed letter to the Congress on December 24 last year, Rahul Gandhi keeps speaking and writing to the media seeking answers again and again,” a poll panel official said.
The sources questioned Gandhi’s decision to communicate via newspaper articles rather than writing formally to the Commission. “All national parties were invited for separate meetings with the EC. Congress alone skipped the May 15 meeting. Why is Rahul Gandhi shying away from direct engagement?” the official asked.
The EC also warned that spreading misinformation harms the credibility of the electoral process. “Unfounded allegations against Maharashtra’s electoral rolls and processes undermine the efforts of lakhs of poll officials and representatives from political parties,” the official said, calling such remarks an “affront to the rule of law.”
Gandhi, however, countered that refusing to address these concerns publicly and with transparency would only fuel suspicion. “The people of India have a right to be assured that no records have been or will be trashed,” he stated.
While the EC has not officially issued a signed statement responding to the article, the controversy continues to escalate, raising questions over the transparency of electoral processes and the credibility of India’s democratic institutions.
