Lok Sabha opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has not written any letter to the Election Commission even after 24 hours of making allegations of rigging in the Maharashtra assembly elections held in November last year. Nor has he sought time for a meeting. This was told to news agency ANI by a source associated with the Election Commission. The Election Commission said that on one hand Rahul says that the issues mentioned by him are serious, but when it comes to writing a letter to the Election Commission, he hesitates. According to the source, as per the procedure, any constitutional institution can formally respond only when Rahul Gandhi writes a letter. Rahul had written an article to the Indian Express on June 7. In this, he had claimed that match fixing took place in the Maharashtra elections, now similar fixing will happen in the Bihar elections as well. Rahul sought a reply from the EC after making the allegations. Rahul Gandhi had written on Saturday, X, that ‘You (Election Commission) are a constitutional institution. It is not the right way to answer serious questions by issuing unsigned and evasive notes. If you have nothing to hide, then answer my questions and prove it.’ On this, Election Commission sources told the news agency on Sunday that the Commission’s 10.5 lakh booth level officers, 50 lakh polling officers and 1 lakh counting supervisors across the country are also disappointed with the allegations being made by Rahul Gandhi. The allegations raise questions on the honesty and hard work of the employees. On CCTV footage, the Commission cited the privacy of voters On the demand for CCTV footage, EC sources said, “As per the instructions of the Election Commission, the CCTV footage of polling stations can be investigated by the High Court. This is done to maintain the privacy of voters. Why does Rahul Gandhi want to violate this privacy either by himself or through his agents? Does Rahul Gandhi not trust the High Court now?” The Election Commission had replied to Rahul a day earlier too On June 7 too, the Election Commission had termed Rahul’s claims as baseless. The Commission had said, ‘It is absurd to make such allegations after the election results did not come in your favor. All these facts were put forward in his reply sent to the Congress on 24 December 2024, which are available on the Election Commission’s website. It seems that all these facts are being completely ignored while raising such issues again and again. The Commission had also said that when someone spreads such misinformation, it defames the thousands of representatives who are deployed by political parties during elections. The enthusiasm of lakhs of election employees who do election duty tirelessly day and night is reduced. The whole country knows that the entire process of every election, including preparation of voter list, voting and counting, is done by government employees. That too in the presence of representatives appointed by political parties / candidates from the polling station to the constituency. When and where did Rahul give a statement on Maharashtra elections The Mahayuti government was formed in Maharashtra on 23 November 2024 The results of the Maharashtra Assembly elections were declared on 23 November last year. The Mahayuti won 230 seats. BJP won 132 seats, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) 57 and NCP (Ajit Pawar) 41 seats. At the same time, the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was reduced to 46 seats. Shiv Sena (Uddhav) 20, Congress 16 and NCP (Sharad Pawar) got 10 seats. SP has won 2 seats. 10 seats went to others. Voting was held on 20 November for 288 seats of Maharashtra Assembly. There was 4% more voting in 2024 as compared to 2019. In 2019, 61.4% votes were cast. In 2024, 65.11% voting took place. Maharashtra CM Fadnavis said – People rejected Rahul, he is rejecting the mandate Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said that the one who is rejected by the public, rejects the mandate itself. Fadnavis wrote in a Marathi newspaper on Sunday, ‘Rahul’s policy is that if you cannot make people understand, then confuse them.’ The public has rejected the Congress, so now they are blaming EVMs for spoiling the image of democracy. Now it has become a habit of the opposition parties to raise questions on EVMs in every election. But all the petitions related to this have been rejected in the Supreme Court. Read the full news…
