The day after the Election Commission (EC) said it had invited Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to discuss any concerns about the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Congress sent a letter asking for a digital, machine-readable copy of the Maharashtra voter lists and video footage from polling day in Maharashtra and Haryana.
The Congress called this a “longstanding request” that should be easy for the EC to fulfill. They criticized the EC for responding with long explanations about voter additions or blaming political parties, instead of simply providing the requested data. The letter was sent by Congress’s eight-member EAGLE committee, which watches over elections across the country to ensure they are free and fair.
In the letter, Congress pointed out that since December 2024, they have raised serious concerns about the sudden and large increase in voters for the Maharashtra 2024 election and the sharp rise in polling after 5 pm on election day. They said that EC’s own data shows there were more new voters added between the May 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the November 2024 Vidhan Sabha elections than in the five years before that. They called this “unprecedented” and questioned who these new voters are and where they came from.
Congress said it was confusing and suspicious that the EC hasn’t simply shared the voter lists but instead gave all kinds of other responses and leaked information to the media. They asked why the EC isn’t providing the final voter lists and video footage, suggesting that withholding this data raises doubts.
The letter emphasized that it’s not helpful to avoid their straightforward requests. Congress said they are ready to meet with the EC once their requests are fulfilled and would even share their analysis during that meeting. Earlier, news reports said that on June 12, the EC invited Rahul Gandhi to discuss any issues, while also saying the elections were conducted according to the law.
Gandhi has raised concerns about irregularities in voter lists, turnout numbers, and CCTV footage since the Maharashtra election results were announced. In an article on June 7, he questioned the electoral rolls and transparency of the process. The EC responded in its letter saying it had already addressed similar concerns from Congress in December 2024 and stressed that all elections are run strictly according to laws and rules set by Parliament and the EC.
