Voting Patterns: Irregularities in the Elections

New Delhi: Spokespersons: Shri Rahul Gandhi, Smt. Supriya Sule and Shri Sanjay Raut: Shri Pawan Khera said that we are starting an important press conference in which Leader of Opposition Shri Rahul Gandhi, Smt. Supriya Sule ji from NCP and Shri Sanjay Raut from Shiv Sena will be present. Without wasting much time, I would request Shri Rahul Gandhi to start the press conference.

Leader of Opposition Shri Rahul Gandhi said, “We represent on this table the entire opposition that fought the last election in Maharashtra and we want to bring to the notice of the people of India some information that we have found about the Maharashtra election.

We have studied in detail the voter lists, the voting patterns and we have had a team, who is working on this now for some time. And there are many-many irregularities that we have found. I want to place on the table a few things that I think, it is important for the country… especially, the young people, who defend democracy, believe in democracy to see and understand.

So, I would like to start. Well! That’s Ambedkar Ji (Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s picture was projected on the screen), who helped… build the Constitution of our country and he says, “The electoral roll is the most fundamental thing in a democracy.” It was of the utmost importance that election should be freed from any kind of interference. The election machinery should be outside the control of the executive government. Now, this is really the question here.

I would like to give a little bit of background. Election Commissioners were chosen by a committee, which included the Chief Justice, Leader of Opposition, Prime Minister, that was changed. It was changed by the government, by the Prime Minister. The Chief Justice was removed from that committee and a BJP person was added into that committee, as the first step.

Second step- immediately before the Lok Sabha elections, Election Commissioner was removed, two new Election Commissioners were put in place, but, this press conference is specifically about Maharashtra and I would like to give you some details about what we have found about the Maharashtra elections and these are, of course, some questions to the Election Commissioner. Question number one- in five years, between Vidhan Sabha 2019 and Lok Sabha 2024, 32 lakh voters were added on the electoral rolls of Maharashtra. However, in a period of five months, between Lok Sabha 2024, which these parties won and Vidhan Sabha 2024, 39 lakh new voters were added in Maharashtra.

Now the question is- why are more voters being added in five months after the Lok Sabha elections than are being added in five years prior? Who are these 39-lakh people to give an idea of what happened here that is the equivalent of an Indian state. The state of Himachal Pradesh has an equivalent number of voters, that the voting population of Himachal Pradesh was added to the voting list of Maharashtra after Lok Sabha elections.

Second point, very interesting point- why were there more registered voters in Maharashtra than the entire voting population of Maharashtra? According to the government, the population of Maharashtra is 9.54 crores. According to the Election Commission, there are more voters in Maharashtra than there are people in Maharashtra.

Now, this is an obvious anomaly. Somehow, voters have suddenly been created in Maharashtra. The government itself is saying our population is 9.54 crores and the Election Commission has more voters than people in Maharashtra. It’s a second question.

And the third question, which is an example of many-many places… one of many-many places which we have found. The thing to understand is the number of voters, who voted for these three parties, has not reduced within Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha. We have got the same number of votes and here is an example.

So, the Congress vote in Lok Sabha 2024 is 1.36 lakh votes… in Vidhan Sabha, we get 1.34 lakhs, very close. Thirty-five thousand new voters are added and BJP, in Lok Sabha gets 1.9 lakh votes and then in Vidhan Sabha, they get 1.75 lakh votes and most of those voters that provided the BJP with their victory come from those 35 thousand new voters, who have been added. And this is not the case in only one constituency, it is the case in multiple constituencies, it is the case in Shiv Sena constituencies, Congress constituencies and NCP constituencies. Now, these are fundamental questions and we have been saying to the Election Commission that we are finding anomalies. We need the voter list, names, addresses of the voters of Maharashtra. We need, yes, with photographs, we need the voter list of the Lok Sabha elections, we need the voter list of the Vidhan Sabha elections, because we want to understand exactly, who these new additional voters are?

There is another factor in this, which we have also found, which we want to understand. There are many-many-many voters that have been deleted. Voters who are in one booth, who have been transferred to another booth. Most of these voters come from Dalit communities, Tribal communities, Minority communities. So, we want to understand this and we have made repeated requests to the Election Commission, they have not answered us.

The Leader of the Opposition has said this in Parliament House, the Election Commission has not responded. Now, the only reason they would not respond is that there is something wrong with what they have done. I am not making accusations. I am presenting data here clearly and I am asking the Election Commission again, the three major Opposition parties of Maharashtra are asking you for the voter list of Lok Sabha and the voter list of Vidhan Sabha elections. It is your duty to provide transparency in the election, it is not our responsibility to provide transparency in the election. So, it is important that now, after repeated request from the entire Opposition here that the Election Commission hands over the voter list, so we can take our investigation to its logical conclusion. Thank you!

On a question that now the question is being raised on the entire machinery, how will you take this forward, what is the way out? Shri Rahul Gandhi said that look, we have to differentiate between two things clearly. One is speculation, someone can say speculation, there is some problem in the machine, someone can say other things and the second is fact, I have not put speculation here, I have put fact here. Fact number one, so many votes have been added in Himachal. In the constituency where there have been additions, our vote is the same, whereas the vote of BJP has increased. And in the constituency of BJP where BJP has won, there have been additions and the final fact is that Election Commission is saying that there are more voters from Maharashtra than its population. Not! These are not speculations; these are facts and this is not our data. This is Election Commission data; these are Election Commission numbers.

Now we are saying that the anomaly is a factual anomaly and if you want, I will give you a list of constituencies where this is happening, where votes have clearly been added, those are the votes of our alliance, BJP is winning because of the additional votes.

90+ percent strike rate, what is the exact strike rate? 90+percent strike rate! Ok! So, these are facts. Now, Election Commission is the final authority, we are asking them. You are not going to be able to explain to us. How there are more voters in Maharashtra than the population of Maharashtra? You cannot explain it. So, what you need to do is, you need to give us now, the voter lists. So, we can explain it and I am sure if they give us the voter list, we will have another press conference here, where the answers to these questions will be available to you. And so that is why we are asking the Election Commission again-and-again. Our Party has asked, their party has asked. Multiple people have asked, informally, we have asked, formally we have asked, every time the Election Commission says to us “Haan! Haan! Haan!” nothing happens.

And my concern is, the strategy is to delay and destroy. So, the answer is Election Commission needs to give us this data. We are the opposition, and they need to give us this data as soon as possible. Next step frankly, what can it be the next step is we go to the judicial system. Also, we don’t actually understand the main issue here. This is actually a small piece of the puzzle; the big piece of the puzzle is voter deletion. 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 voters is bigger than the number of added voters, we suspect, so.

On another question that you are saying that despite raising this with the EC time and again, they are not responding. Do you think that another way would be to go to the people and start people’s movement? Could you approach the President about this, Shri Rahul Gandhi said- I just mentioned, I think, the next step of this is going to be, go to the judiciary, but, look, it’s surprising to me that the Election Commission is not ready to give us the voter list, it should be surprising to you. There should be no reason for them not to give us the voter list. To me, the only reason possible for them not immediately giving us the voter lists of both these elections, is that there is something wrong, and they know it.

On another question, you said that Election Commission is not giving you voter list, did you get voter list from parties during Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, did you not reach any conclusion on the basis of that list? Shri Rahul Gandhi said that wedo not get centralized list. We get completely decentralized list. So, we need a centralized list and we need the final list, the list on which voting has been done for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha. It is very simple, Election Commission can give it to us in 15 seconds, but it is not giving it.

On another question, the figures you gave that there are about 9 crore 70 lakh voters and the adult population is 9 crore 54 lakh, can we find out the source of this? Shri Rahul Gandhi said-That is the Union Ministry of Health and Family welfare data. What happens normally is that almost all the voters are not able to cast their votes. Normally if you look at any state, 85%, 87% of the total voters, vote. Here I think 102% have voted, how much is it? 102% have voted. It is not only that there are more voters than actual people. It is that the voting percentage is 102 per cent. The actual voting percentage of this should be 15 per cent approximately if you aggregate the state, then it should be 15 per cent less than 9.54. It is actually 102 per cent. So, really… it’s way beyond the population. On another question that they are asking for the voter list after the elections, the by-election commissioner also said in the last press conference that every year the voter list is given to the recognized parties, just before the elections there is a final roll, it is given to the candidates, parties? Shri Rahul Gandhi said that if it is given, then why are they not giving it to us. We are asking… if it is given. If it’s known to give it, then they should give it to us. I told you that the list is given in a decentralized manner. If an MLA has to get the list, then he has to go polling booth by polling booth. We cannot work with that data, we need centralized data, data of the entire state. But assume that what you are saying is correct. That they have given us a list, fine, then why are they not just making it available to us? Yes, they do give then when we are asking for it, why are they not giving it?

Election Commission is complicit in voter list manipulation: EAGLE

In a press released on March 3, 2025, by the Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Expert (EAGLE) says, “There are some startling developments on the issue of voter list manipulation that have surfaced. The same voter id number is being used for several voters, both from the same constituency in the same state as well as from other states. The Election Commission cannot feign ignorance or incompetence in this matter. It is a deliberate act of voter list manipulation to aid the ruling party and thwart the idea of free and fair elections. The cover is now blown. It is clear that the ruling BJP wins or attempts to win elections by manipulating voter lists in connivance with the Election Commission. Which is why the process of appointment of the Election Commissioners is so critical to the Narendra Modi government that it subverted a Supreme Court ruling to have a balanced committee to appoint Election Commissioners.

This is a grave danger to the very idea of India as an electoral democracy. This transcends political parties and politics. Babasaheb Ambedkar fought for the setting up of an independent Election Commission to precisely resist this urge of executive interference in elections. The Congress Party will not let this issue fade away and is actively working on seeking remedy through legal, political, legislative and any other means.