After levelling allegations of anomalies in Maharashtra’s voter lists in the Assembly polls, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said that they have demanded the voter lists from the Election Commission and their next step would be to approach the judicial system.
Speaking to the media, Rahul said that while speculation could suggest issues with voting machines, the facts are “undeniable”.
“We need to clearly present the difference between two things. One is speculation – one can say that there were problems in the machines. The second is fact. I have not placed any speculation here. I have presented facts. Fact no. 1, as many voters as the population of Himachal Pradesh have been added.
The constituencies wherever they have been added are BJP constituencies, they have been added wherever BJP has won. Final fact, EC says there are more voters than the population of Maharashtra. These are not speculations. These are facts. This is not our data; this is EC’s data,” he said.
He further said that the Election Commission would not be able to explain them how there are more voters in Maharashtra than the population of Maharashtra. The Congress leader also highlighted that the “big piece of the puzzle” is voter deletion.
“So, you need to give us now the voter lists, so we can explain it. I am sure that if they give is the voter list, we will have another press conference here where the answers to these questions will be available to you. My concern is that the strategy is to delay and destroy. EC needs to give is this data. Next step is, that we go to the judicial system,” he said.
“We don’t know how many voters have been deleted where. We know how many have been added, we don’t know how many have been deleted. We suspect the number of deleted is more than the number of added,” the Lok Sabha LoP added.
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction MP Supriya Sule pointed out that 11 seats were such in the Maharashtra Assembly polls where her party lost because of confusion between party symbols.
“We want re-elections on the ballot paper to be held even at those constituencies where our candidates have won… 11 seats are such where we lost the elections because of confusion between party symbols. Even the party in power has accepted this.
We made many requests to change the symbol from ‘Tutari’ – but the request wasn’t entertained… We only demand the election commission to be fair,” Sule said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that if the Election Commission of the country is ‘alive’ – they must answer what Rahul Gandhi has asked.
“But, the election commission won’t reply as they have become the slave of the government which was formed… From where these additional 39 lakh voters will go? They will go to Bihar. We have seen a few of them in Delhi elections. They will now go to Bihar and then UP,” Raut claimed.
The assembly elections in Maharashtra were held in November last year, and Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance won a landslide victory winning 232 out of 288 seats. The Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, on the other hand, received a drubbing, as they couldn’t breach the mark of 50 seats. (ANI)
