Rahul Gandhi Vs EC: Unpacking Allegations of 'Rigging' in 2024 Maharashtra Polls

Did the Election Commission manipulate results for the 2024 Maharashtra polls? Rahul Gandhi's claims explained.

(Illustration: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Over six months after the verdict was announced in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance, the 2024 Maharashtra State Assembly elections continue to make headlines.

This time because of a sharply-worded opinion piece written in The Indian Express by the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. In the piece, Rahul levelled allegations of large-scale electoral manipulation over the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the BJP. He called the November Assembly elections a case of ‘match-fixing’ — accusing the ruling BJP and ECI of “industrial-scale rigging”.

The main accusations mentioned in the article include:

• The selection panel for Election Commissioners was rigged to favor the government.

• The voter rolls saw an unexplained addition of 41 lakh voters within just five months.

• Voting turnout figures allegedly jumped by a staggering 7.83% overnight — translating to 76 lakh extra votes.

• This surge was concentrated in 12,000 booths where the BJP was weak.

• Requests for CCTV footage and voter rolls with photos were either ignored or restricted.

Now, this is not the first time that the Congress party or Rahul himself has made these allegations. The party first brought them in December right after the results were announced. Rahul then raised this issue in the Parliament in February and then again in subsequent press conferences — one was even jointly addressed by Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and NCP (Sharad Pawar)’s Supriya Sule.

A detailed investigation published by The Quint in December 2024 also supports some of Rahul's claims.

In its defence, the Commission first published a detailed 66-page press note on 24 December 2024 and more recently, countered allegations raised in the Indian Express opinion piece through a source-based article published by news agency ANI.

In this video, we deconstruct Rahul Gandhi's claims and EC's counterclaims to understand what went down in Maharashtra. Watch!