'Vote theft in Maha polls': Rahul wants machine-readable digital voter rolls

Flagging alleged irregularities in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly polls, Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed that these weren't isolated glitches but "vote theft", and demanded the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls as well as CCTV footage.

The LoP shared on X a media report which claimed that in just six months between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra assembly polls, Nagpur South West — the seat held by BJP leader and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis — added 29,219 new voters.

"In Maharashtra CM's own constituency, the voter list grew by 8% in just 5 months. Some booths saw a 20-50% surge. BLOs reported unknown individuals casting votes," Gandhi said in his post.

"Media uncovered thousands of voters with no verified address. And the EC? Silent — or complicit. These aren’t isolated glitches. This is vote theft. The cover-up is the confession," he said. "That's why we demand the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage."

Gandhi's remarks came on a day it emerged that the Election Commission of India has formally written to him on his allegations of rigging in the 2024 Maharashtra polls, saying all elections are held by the poll panel strictly as per rules and laws passed by Parliament, and the entire exercise involves thousands of personnel, including booth-level agents appointed by political parties.

In a letter emailed to Gandhi on 12 June in response to his article published in a prominent national daily, the ECI said the entire election process in Maharashtra was conducted in a decentralised manner at the assembly segment level, which involved more than 1 lakh booth-level officers (BLOs), 288 electoral registration officers (EROs), 139 general observers, 41 police observers, 71 expenditure observers and 288 returning officers (ROs) appointed by the comrnission.

"We presume that any issue regarding conduct of elections would have already been raised through election petitions filed in the competent court of law (high court) by the INC candidates," it told Gandhi.

"However, if you still have any issues, you are welcome to write to us and the Commission is also willing to meet you in person at a mutually convenient date and time to discuss all issues," the poll authority said.