Rahul Gandhi spreads fake news in US that more people voted in Maharashtra elections than total adults there, claims ‘something very wrong with the system’: Here’s the truth
Congress MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi is on a two-day visit to the United States. The Congress leader started his US visit with his usual tactic of hiding his own incompetence by pinning the blame on the ‘system’. While addressing the Indian diaspora at a meeting in Boston, Gandhi claimed that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is ‘compromised’.
Implying that the electoral process was manipulated to favour the Bhartiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti Alliance in Maharashtra elections, the Congress scion alleged that something is “very wrong with the system.”
Citing the example of the Maharashtra elections, Rahul Gandhi claimed that there was an addition of 65 lakh voters to the voter turnout in two hours, which was impossible.
“It is very clear to us that the Election Commission is compromised, and it is very clear that there is something wrong with the system. I have said this multiple times…More people voted in the Maharashtra Assembly elections than there are adults in Maharashtra. The Election Commission gave us a voting figure for 5:30 PM and between 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM, 65 lakh voters voted. This is physically impossible. For a voter to vote, it takes approx 3 minutes, and if you do the Math, it would mean that there were lines of voters till 2 AM, but this did not happen…When we asked them for the videography, they not only refused but they also changed the law so that now we are not allowed to ask for the videography…” Gandhi said.
Meanwhile, the BJP launched a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi over his allegations on Indian democratic systems, and the party’s spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “Rahul Gandhi is a serial offender. He has taken SUPARI against Indian institutions. Every time he’s on foreign soil, in BJP Virodh he undertakes Badnami of Bharat. If he wins an election, ECI is fine. If he wins a court case, judiciary is fine. Otherwise, he will abuse and insult Indian institutions. First, he says I will fight Indian state and now he is doing Badnami of Bharat.”
Notably, the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition had won 235 out of 288 seats in the last assembly elections in Maharashtra giving a major setback to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the coalition of Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena (UBT).
It seems like the historic victory of the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra shattering all expectations of the MVA, has dealt a massive blow to the Congress party. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s desperate attempts at pushing the same old ‘Democracy in danger’ narrative reflects the same. However, since the Congress leader decided to attack India’s electoral process and questioned the integrity of the Indian Election Commission on foreign soil, it is important to bust his lies about the alleged discrepancies in the 2024 Maharashtra elections.
Rahul Gandhi peddling already debunked falsehoods on foreign soil
In November 2024, right after the BJP-led alliance registered a historic win in the Maharashtra assembly elections, the opposition parties and their supportive ecosystem started the usual ‘EVM hack’ rant instead of gracefully accepting the public’s mandate. The leftist propaganda portal TheWire had spearheaded this mendacious ‘Hum haare nahin hain, humein haraya gaya hai’ campaign, to cast aspersions on the integrity of the Election Commission and fairness of the electoral process. TheWire had claimed that 5,04,313 additional votes were cast during the Maharashtra state elections.
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Maharashtra had debunked these lies. He stated that TheWire report had included 5,38,225 postal ballots in the votes counted, which was not part of the votes polled data released by CEO Maharashtra. It highlighted that 6,40,88,195 votes were cast in all 288 Assembly seats through EVMs, which has been “mischievously” displayed as the overall number of votes cast.
“The fact is that 5,38,225 valid postal ballots were not added in this figure. When we add the 5,38,225 valid postal ballots to the 6,40,88,195 votes polled through EVMs; the total votes polled come out to be 6,46,26,420. The total votes counted on the day of the counting including postal ballots is 6,45,92,508. Hence, the total votes counted are not more than the total votes polled,” the ECI official said.
CEO Maharashtra also explained why, in certain Constituencies, fewer votes were counted than those required by the established procedure and clarified, “The EVM counting is not taken up if Mock Poll Data was not cleared from the Control Unit of the Polling Station before actual start of Poll or if there is non-display of result in the display panel of Control Unit or there was mismatch in data reported in Form 17C and votes recorded in EVM due to clerical or typing human error. In such cases, as the winning margin was higher than the total votes polled in these Polling Stations, counting of VVPAT Slips of these Polling Stations was not done as per instructions contained in Para No.7(iv)(b) of ECIs letter dated 19.07.2023.”
Further explaining the voting percentage math, CEO Maharashtra had said, “In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections, the Voting percentage at 5 pm was 58.22% (approximate) and the final voting percentage was 66.05%. This is normal as voting continues even after 6 pm, till the last person who stood at the queue at 6 pm votes. Even in 2019, the percentages were 54.43% (approximate) at 5 pm and 61.10% at the final. Many voters come in the evening in urban and semi-urban areas, which constitute a large chunk in Maharashtra. It is important to note that two-hourly voter turnout information on the day of poll upto 5 pm is based on oral telephonic communication only. On the other hand, Form-17C which is given at the ‘Close of Poll’ to polling agents, matches with the final percentage and votes counted. Information in Form-17 C is matched by the Candidate’s counting agents while counting.”
Notably, the opposition parties and journalist-turned-YouTuber propagandists had widely used the lies peddled by TheWire in its report to question the Election Commission’s integrity and to push the narrative that the BJP’s victory was the product of some sort of rigging in their favour. In addition, Rahul Gandhi had in February this year claimed that over 7 million voters were suspiciously added between the Lok Sabha elections and the state assembly elections.
It is interesting to note that just days back, the election commission refuted the accusations of irregularities in Maharashtra’s electoral roll published in January this year. Hardly any first or second appeals were made under Section 24 of the Representation of People Act, or correction of any entries in Electoral Rolls (Section 22) or Inclusion (Section 23) during the recent Special Summary Revision published on January 6-7, 2025. The Special Summary Revision (SSR) involves reviewing the voter list and unveiling a draft electoral roll. It is often held prior to elections and aims to uphold a just and transparent voting process by adding newly eligible voters, including those who have reached the age of 18 or have changed their constituency. It also involves the elimination of duplicate and deceased voters.
The ECI said that only 89 appeals for changes with the district election office and only one with the chief electoral office were filed against 9.7 crore registered voters.
The ECI asserted that this negligible number contradicts the claims made by opposition parties in parliament’s winter session.
“We received 89 first appeals that were cleared at the district level, and only one second appeal came up to the chief electoral office in Maharashtra,” TOI quoted an ECI official as saying.
It all started after LoP Rahul Gandhi sought a discussion in the Lok Sabha, alleging addition of over 30 lakh voters between 2019 and 2024 in Maharashtra and duplication of the elector photo identity card (EPIC) numbers. The ECI earlier stated that duplication of EPIC numbers does not essentially reflect duplicate or fake voters. The commission had also released data on the total electors and the booth-level agents from political parties in the country.
Despite the Election Commission of India refuting the lies and propaganda of the opposition parties casting aspersion on electoral integrity, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has the audacity to travel abroad and shamelessly peddle lies to tarnish the image of India’s functioning democracy.
Rahul Gandhi and his track record of maligning India’s image on foreign soil
This, however, is not the first time that Rahul Gandhi has visited a foreign nation to give a positive representation of India, rather, to seek foreign intervention in India’s internal affairs, attack political adversaries, cry ‘democracy in danger’, meet people linked to anti-India and anti-Hindu entities, and secretly meet Chinese officials at a time when India was engaged in conflict with the country. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party have also been toeing the narrative fueled by known Modi detractor and regime change specialist George Soros. Back in June 2023, during his 10-day US tour, Rahul Gandhi was seen with Sunita Vishwanath, the co-founder of a US-based and Soros-linked anti-Hindu organisation, which is ironically called “Hindus for Human Rights” in a picture of a talk shared by the Hudson Institute.
From signing MoU with China’s community party to hobnobbing with organisations peddling the Islamist narrative, to mirroring the anti-Modi agenda so much so that it almost mimics the stand of the government of Pakistan, Congress has been virtually knocking the doors of the West to help them gain power from the hands of India’s democratically elected government.
In April 2021, speaking at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, Gandhi insisted that the US government establishment should ‘say more’ about ‘what is happening in India’. In 2022, at the ‘Ideas for India’ conference in the United Kingdom, Rahul Gandhi had sought foreign intervention again. During his controversial address, Rahul Gandhi signaled his desire for foreign intervention two times.
Not to forget how in 2023, Rahul Gandhi traveled abroad to Cambridge University to paint a fake grim picture of India, alleging democracy under attack of a so-called ‘dictatorship’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
OpIndia has time and again reported how Rahul Gandhi has over the years been repeatedly demanding foreign intervention in India’s internal affairs during his visits to the US, UK and other countries.
By peddling the ‘ECI compromised’ lies, Gandhi once again is shifting the blame from his party’s failures and evade accountability as a party leader. Gandhi’s audacity to question ECI’s integrity based on already debunked lies is a blatant attempt at undermining public trust, both within the country and abroad, in India’s electoral system. If Congress was actually serious about its ‘ECI compromised’ allegations, it would have boycotted elections or provided solid evidence, not debunked lies peddled by leftist propagandists. Apparently, Rahul Gandhi wants to send out a message to foreign powers that somehow just because Congress and its allies could not win elections in one state or overthrow the BJP-led NDA in Lok Sabha elections, India’s democratic framework is crumbling and its time the foreign powers intervene to do what Congress motormouth Mani Shankar Aiyar once said: “Unhe hataiye humein laiye” (remove them, bring us).
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