‘EC is compromised, something very wrong with system,' says Rahul Gandhi in US, BJP calls him ‘traitor'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Sunday sparked a political row after he said in the United States that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is 'compromised' and 'there is something very wrong with the system'.
The BJP Monday called Rahul Gandhi a 'traitor' for his remarks against the EC and accused him of venting his frustration over the Enforcement Directorate (ED) action in the National Herald case against him and his mother Sonia Gandhi.
While addressing the Indian diaspora in Boston, Gandhi alleged irregularities in the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2024, saying more voters voted in the election than the adult population of the state.
'In simple terms, more people voted in the Maharashtra Assembly elections than there are adults in Maharashtra. This is a fact. The Election Commission gave us a voting figure at 5.30 in the evening, and between 5.30 in the evening and 7.30 in the evening, when the polls were supposed to have closed, 65 lakh voters voted.'
Gandhi said this was 'physically impossible to happen' because a voter takes 'approximately three minutes' to vote. 'If you do the math, it would mean that there were lines of voters until 2 o'clock at night, and this did not happen,' said Gandhi.
In the 2024 Maharashtra polls, the BJP-led Maha Yuti alliance won a landslide victory, winning 235 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) could only win 50 seats, with the Congress reducing to 16.
Gandhi said the EC refused to check the video footage of the poll process. 'They not only refused to give us the videography, they changed the law so that you are not allowed to ask for the videography. It is very clear to us that the Election Commission is compromised, and there is something very wrong with the system,' he said.
As per EC's statistical reports, the electors in Maharashtra increased from 8.86 crore in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to 8.98 crore in the Assembly elections that year. In 2024, electors increased from 9.30 crore in the Lok Sabha elections to 9.70 crore in the Assembly polls five months later.
Regarding Gandhi's allegation that there were more electors in Maharashtra than the health ministry-projected adult population, a senior EC official had earlier asked, 'The latest Census has not been conducted yet. How can you use population projection estimates and compare them to absolute voter numbers?'
Criticising Gandhi's remarks, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra Monday said, 'You are venting the ire over the Enforcement Directorate's (action in the National Herald case) on the Election Commission. Nothing will happen by doing so.'
Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are facing charges in a money laundering case related to The National Herald, a newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938. The ED alleges that the Gandhis unlawfully acquired assets belonging to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of The National Herald.
'The ED will not spare you because agencies work based on facts, and the National Herald matter is an open and shut case. You will not be spared. You and your mother will be caught with proceeds of crime and sent to jail,' Patra said during a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
'You are a traitor, not just because you insult Indian institutions and Indian democracy on foreign soil, but also because you and your mother have embezzled crores of rupees of the country in the National Herald case. You and your mother will not be able to get away with this,' Patra said.
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