Devendra Fadnavis replies to Rahul Gandhi: Rejected by people, now he rejects people's mandate

Indian Express

9 hours ago

On June 6, I was on a day-long tour of Gadchiroli, visiting areas right up to the Abujhmad forest. I had the privilege of being the first Chief Minister to visit that deep interior location. I stayed overnight in Gadchiroli; to date, I have stayed there at least four times. I am not trying to set records here, but the way an anti-constitutional mindset exploits our tribal communities and deprives them of development must be stopped. Under the leadership of the Honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi ji, our dynamic Union Home Minister, the Honourable Amit bhai Shah, has set the goal of a Naxal-free India by March 2026, and achieving this goal is not impossible.
However, one thing must be understood: It is easier to eliminate the Naxalite holding a gun. But we have a much longer battle ahead against the system known as 'urban Naxals', which systematically tries to destroy all of India's constitutional institutions.
On the morning of June 7, returning from Gadchiroli to Nagpur, journalists brought to my attention an article written by Shri Rahul Gandhi (https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/rahul-gandhi-writes-match-fixing-maharashtra-10052638/). I asked them what it was about. They replied, 'The Maharashtra Assembly elections!' Frankly, this topic is old and has been dragged out for long. The Election Commission has already provided exhaustive responses time and again.
If he (Rahul) has the urge to become a writer without even reading those answers, I wish him all the best! But at the same time, here is some unsolicited advice: It would be more prudent to accept defeat for once and introspect on where you are going wrong, where your connection with the people is lacking, and what you should do about it.
His 'article' deserves to be ignored, but it operates on a principle: If you can't convince people, confuse them. That is precisely what Rahul Gandhi is repeatedly doing. Therefore, we must continue to present the facts to the public. Of course, it is a separate matter that he is already preparing his excuses for future defeats in the upcoming assembly elections, including Bihar.
As far as the Maharashtra elections are concerned, it was not fundamentally a contest between the Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi. There was another factor: The Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan. What was this 'todo' (break) campaign, established under the name of 'jodo' (unite), doing? It was creating misconceptions among the public against all of the country's constitutional institutions, thereby inciting them to fight against the nation itself. This includes the judiciary and the Election Commission, etc.
I delivered a very detailed speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH4ZDObJ_2Y) in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on December 19, 2024, about which organisations were part of this 'Bharat Jodo' and how many of them were listed as 'urban Naxal' entities by the then PM, Dr Manmohan Singh, in 2012. Rahul Gandhi should definitely listen to it; he will automatically find the answer to the first part of his article. From 1950 until a new law was enacted, your Congress government directly appointed the Chief Election Commissioner! Out of 26 commissioners to date, 25 were directly appointed by the central government. For the first time, the Honourable Modi ji established a committee that includes the Leader of the Opposition or the leader of the largest political party. But it seems you do not approve of this step, which strengthens democracy and was a principle never followed during your time.
Rahul Gandhi's second objection is the increase in the number of voters, whom he calls 'bogus voters.' He objects that 31 lakh voters were added in five years and further claims that 41 lakh were added in five months. The number of young voters is constantly increasing. Of these 40,81,229 voters, 26,46,608 were young voters.
Regarding the process of new voter registration, the involvement of political parties, and the hearing procedures, the Election Commission sent a detailed 60-page letter to your party's law, human rights, and RTI department's lawyer, Omar Hoda, on December 24, 2024, addressing all these questions. If it has not reached you, please get a copy and read it. Furthermore, you should also review some old data. Between 2014 and 2019, 63 lakh new voters were added; from 2009 to 2014, 75 lakh new voters were added; and from 2004 to 2009, 1 crore new voters were added. This means that nothing extraordinary happened in 2024.
If you want the data on how the number of voters increased in between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, here it is: In 2004, a 5 per cent more in the Assembly elections from the Lok Sabha polls. In 2009, 4 per cent more; in 2014, 3 per cent more; in 2019, 1 per cent more; and in 2024, 4 per cent more. So again, nothing new happened in 2024.
The claim that the voting percentage suddenly increased is a huge joke. To understand how the percentage rose in the last hour, one must look at the hourly voting rate. The average polling rate throughout the day was 5.83 per cent per hour. So what new information are you revealing by stating there was a 7.83 per cent increase in the last hour? Is Rahul Gandhi unaware that 5 pm to 6 pm is also a polling hour, and everyone present in the queue at the booth by 6 pm is allowed to cast their vote?
My office also wrote a detailed article on this in Loksatta on December 3, 2024 (https://www.loksatta.com/sampadkiya/columns/row-over-74-lakh-votes-in-last-hour-in-maharashtra-assembly-election-supreme-court-rejects-petitions-against-evm-zws-70-4747873/lite/). Had he read that, perhaps Rahul Gandhi would not have had to undertake this writing endeavor today.
Moreover, this didn't just happen in Maharashtra. In the second phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the voter turnout figure given at 5 pm was 60.96 per cent, which was finalised at 66.71 per cent the next day. The increase was 5.75 per cent. But are you going to hide that fact because you won that election? Previously, the final voting figures would come late at night; now, the 5 pm figure is released, and the final figure comes the next day.
Here, Rahul Gandhi claims that the increased voter count was limited to 12,000 polling stations across only 85 constituencies, and that most of these seats went to the NDA's tally. The calculation for this is also in the Loksatta article from December 3, 2024. The number of total votes cast after 6 pm was 17,70,867. Based on the day's average voting rate, 97,103.32 votes were cast per minute across 1.427 lakh polling stations. Therefore, if we calculate the average for the votes cast after 6 pm, the additional time taken was only 18 minutes and 23 seconds.
The claim that the NDA won where the voter percentage increased at the last moment is even more laughable. He gave the example of Kamthi. But I will provide the examples which he did not. In Madha, there was an 18 per cent increase, where the Sharad Pawar group's candidate won. In Wani, a 13 per cent increase, where the Uddhav Thackeray group's candidate won. In Shrirampur, a 12 per cent increase, where the Congress won.
Rahul Gandhi has raised some evidentiary points regarding the Election Commission. The Election Commission will surely respond to them. But the main issue is the constant insult to the democratic process and the people's mandate. The people have rejected Rahul Gandhi, and in retaliation, he is rejecting the people and their mandate.
This will only push the Congress party further into a ditch. He needs to introspect on why his own party's MLAs make statements challenging anyone to get an appointment with him within a day. He must be mindful of which direction he is taking the country and what poison he is spreading by constantly raising doubts about the democratic process and constitutional institutions.
I am aware of how deeply the defeat in Maharashtra has hurt him and his allies. But if you continue to insult the mandate of Maharashtra's farmers, Ladki Bahin (beloved sisters), common people, and all its citizens in this manner, the people of Maharashtra will never forgive you. As the Chief Minister, and as their sevak, I will always condemn this insult to the people of Maharashtra!
The writer is the Chief Minister of Maharashtra