• Atul Londhe

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Shri Rahul Gandhi raised the question through his article on how the Election Commission is working under the pressure of the Modi government, and also raised questions on the irregularities that took place in 12,000 booths of 82 assembly constituencies in the Maharashtra assembly elections. Shri Rahul Gandhi has raised some serious and concrete questions in the article:

1. The complete voter list of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha of 2024 should be made public.
2. This list should be made available in machine readable format along with photos.

3. CCTV and video footage of voting after 5 pm should be made available.

4. 76 lakh votes were cast at 12,000 booths in 82 assembly constituencies, that is, on an average 600 votes were cast at each booth. If it took one minute to cast one vote, it would have taken at least 10 hours, but voting did not take place overnight at any booth in Maharashtra. Our challenge is that the commission should show even one booth where voting continued till morning.

The reply given by the Election Commission to these questions of Shri Rahul Gandhi cannot be called official, because that statement neither has the seal of any officer nor his signature, nor is it available on the Commission’s website. But Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis has written an article and given an unofficial reply to the questions raised by Shri Rahul Gandhi. The credibility of the arguments given by Devendra Fadnavis is also doubtful.

Devendra Fadnavis has said in his article that 16 lakh votes were cast after 5 pm, whereas the actual figure is 76 lakhs. Fadnavis claims that the Modi government has no pressure on any constitutional institution. If this is so, then why did the Supreme Court order the formation of a committee of the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice for the appointment of the Election Commissioner? And then why did the Modi government take the anti-democratic step of changing the law and including a minister nominated by the Prime Minister in the committee instead of the Chief Justice?

There is another example. Ajit Pawar, who was accused by BJP of Rs. 70 thousand crore irrigation scam, Chhagan Bhujbal, who was sent to jail in Maharashtra Sadan scam, Praful Patel, who was said to be a partner of underworld mafia Iqbal Mirchi, Narayan Rane, who was accused of money laundering through shell companies, and whose corruption allegations were enumerated by Fadnavis in the assembly - all of them have been taken along by making them ministers today. Sending people to jail by misusing institutions like ED, Income Tax, CBI and then bringing them to power - is this not true?

Third example - In Punjab assembly elections, Chandigarh High Court had ordered to make the video footage after 5 pm public. Then the central government changed the law and banned making this footage public. What is the government hiding?

There are 9.70 crore voters in the voter list of Election Commission, whereas according to the government’s own health ministry, the population of 18+ years is 9.54 crore. Where did these 16 lakh additional voters come from - the answer to this has not been found till date.

When the voter list of Karad South Assembly constituency of Maharashtra was checked with the ‘de-duplication’ software, thousands of fake names were found - the name is the same, but the address and EPIC numbers are different. The Tehsildar and District Magistrate have confirmed this, but the Election Commission is not ready to accept it. The same person has cast his vote several times at different booths (note that applying acetone erases the ink applied on the finger by the election officer while casting the vote).

All these facts make it clear that the questions raised by Shri Rahul Gandhi are very close to the truth. Fadnavis Ji should accept this truth. But instead of giving factual answers, he indulges in poetry. It seems he has learnt this skill from former Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

Keep in mind that since 2014, the credibility of constitutional institutions in the country has been continuously declining. Since 2004, in any election, the voting percentage has not increased by more than 1.25 percent after 5 pm, but how did it increase by 8 percent in this election? Now Fadnavis has to answer that whose face is covered with dust and who is cleaning the mirror? Fadnavis’ claim that the public has rejected the Congress is also completely hollow. The BJP has suffered a huge defeat in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections. And the BJP formed the government in the Assembly by stealing the mandate. After the elections, the discussion everywhere was how could they win? Farmers, youth, women - no one was happy with the BJP-Shinde-Ajit Pawar Mahayuti government. Everyone was saying - we did not even vote for them. That is why in Markadwadi village of Solapur district, people decided to expose the truth by conducting elections with ballot papers, but this government crushed that voice with oppressive methods.

This very move of BJP had exposed the truth of election theft. This spark that came out from the soil of Markadwadi is now going to go ablaze in the whole of Maharashtra, and if the theft of elections continues like this, then this fire is not going to get doused.

(The author is the chief spokesperson of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee)