This request follows the EC’s invitation to meet with Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to discuss issues he has raised about the upcoming 2024 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha election.
The Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE), a faction of the Congress, expressed in a letter to the EC that party leaders would be eager to meet after receiving the voter lists and video footage, in order to share their analytical findings.
“We urge you to provide the machine-readable, digital copies of the Maharashtra voter lists and the polling day video footage for both Maharashtra and Haryana within a week from the date of this letter. This has been a longstanding request, and we believe it should be easily accommodated by the EC,” stated the EAGLE group.
The group noted that as the party instrumental in establishing India as a sovereign democratic republic, they are prepared to cooperate with the EC to fortify electoral processes.
“Additionally, it is crucial for India’s reputation as a valued democracy that the EC gains the utmost trust and confidence from the nation’s billion voters and its political entities,” the leaders emphasized.
In reply to the EC’s letter dated June 12, the group communicated with Ashwani Kumar Mohal, Secretary in the Election Commission of India, reiterating that they have consistently highlighted concerns through letters, petitions, articles, press conferences, and parliamentary speeches by leaders of the INDIA alliance since December 2024.
“We have raised pertinent questions regarding the sudden, dramatic increase in electors and voters for the 2024 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha election, as well as the inexplicable spike in polling occurring after 5 pm on election day,” they commented.
The EAGLE group asserted that EC data irrefutably shows a greater number of new electors enrolled between the May 2024 Lok Sabha election and the November assembly elections in Maharashtra than the total from the previous five years, between the 2019 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections and the 2024 parliamentary elections.
“This phenomenon has never been observed before, defying common sense and logic. Who are these new voters and where did they come from?” they questioned.
To examine this matter thoroughly, the EAGLE suggested that any reasonable person would agree the initial step should be comparing the final electors list for the 2024 Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections with that for the 2024 assembly elections.
“It is both intriguing and frustrating that the Election Commission has engaged in various forms of responses, media leaks, and deflection instead of providing these two simple voter lists. Why not just give us the requested final voter lists? Given the evasion, a logical follow-up question must be posed – do you or do you not possess these voter lists? In this context, the lack of polling day video footage adds to the uncertainty and suspicion,” the EAGLE stated.
The group emphasized that it is neither beneficial nor constructive to divert attention from their straightforward requests with lengthy explanations about the process of adding or removing voters, or assigning blame to a political party’s organizational challenges, or claiming that these voter lists were distributed to individual candidates, as stated by the leaders.
The EC formally addressed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of electoral malfeasance in the 2024 Maharashtra polls, asserting that all elections are carried out strictly in accordance with legal stipulations, and that candidates have presumably already approached the courts regarding issues of poll conduct.
The poll panel indicated that if the Congress leader continues to have concerns, he is welcome to communicate with the authority, and that the EC is also open to a personal meeting to discuss any issues.
Gandhi had accused “match-fixing” in the Maharashtra elections in an article published in a prominent newspaper. The EC responded with an email on June 12, noting that the entire election process was managed in a decentralized manner at the assembly constituency level.
