New Delhi: Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged discrepancies in the Maharashtra voters list during the assembly polls 2024. While addressing a press conference, the Congress MP claimed that the the number of voters in the state was more than its adult population.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar’s (NCP-SP’s) Supriya Sule were also present at the press briefing along wit the Congress leader. Notably, the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP-SP are part of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra.

Rahul Gandhi's Allegations:

“We represent on this table - the entire opposition that fought the last election in Maharashtra. We are going to bring some information about the election. We studied the details - the voters and the voting list. Our teams have been working, and we have found many irregularities,” Gandhi said.

He further added that a total of 32 lakh voters were added in five years between the assembly polls elections in 2019 and Lok Sabha, 2024 and 39 lakh voters were added in period of 5 months between Lok Sabha 2024 and assembly polls. Notably, the parliamentary polls were held in June and the Maharashtra assembly polls took place in November last year.

“In 5 years between the Vidhan Sabha elections in 2019 and Lok Sabha, 2024 - 32 lakh voters were added. However, in period of 5 months between Lok Sabha 2024 which these parties (Congress, NCP-SCP, Shiv Sena (UBT))won and Vidhan Sabha elections - 39 lakh voters were added. The question is, who are these 39 lakh voters?” Gandhi stated.

“That is equivalent to the total number of voters of Himachal Pradesh. The second point is, why there are more voters in Maharashtra than the entire voting population of the state?... Somehow, the voters have been suddenly created in Maharashtra,” he pointed out.

The Congress MP also claimed that they demanded clarification from Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding the alleged discrepancy in the Maharashtra voter list, but the poll body did not respond.

"We have been saying to the election commission that we are finding anomalies. We need the voter list - names and addresses of the voters of Maharashtra. We need the voter list of the Lok Sabha election. We need the voter list of the Vidhan Sabha election. Because we want to understand exactly who these new additional are... There are many, many, many voters that have been deleted. Voters who are in one booth have been transferred to another booth. Most of these voters come from Dalit communities, tribal communities, and minority communities,” Gandhi said.

“We have made repeated requests to the election commission. They have not answered us. The leader of the opposition has said this in Parliament House. The election commission has not responded. Now, the only reason they would not respond is that there is something wrong with what they have done. I am not making any accusations. I am presenting data here clearly,” he added.

Election Commission's Response:

Meanwhile, the ECI responded to Gandhi's allegations. The poll body said that it would provide a written reply to the political parties questions with “full factual and procedural matrix”.

"ECI considers political parties, as priority stakeholders, of course the voters being the prime & deeply values views, suggestions, questions coming from political parties. Commission would respond in writing with full factual &procedural matrix uniformly adopted across the country," the po9ll body wrote in its X post.

Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 Results:

The Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 were held in November last year. In the polls ruling Mahayuti alliance comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP registered a landslide victory securing 230 seats. Out of the 288 seats, the BJP emerged as the largest party with 132 seats, followed by Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, with 57 seats. Ajit Pawar's NCP faction won 41 seats. Meanwhile, the MVA managed to win only 46 seats, with the Shiv sena (UBT) bagging 20 seats, the Congress 16, and the NCP led by Sharad Pawar only 10.