The Crossbill Team
Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of orchestrating “industrial-scale rigging” during the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections.
In an op-ed published in The Indian Express on Saturday, Gandhi alleged that the election was manipulated through a systematic subversion of democratic institutions, warning that similar tactics may be used in the upcoming Bihar polls.
Describing the Maharashtra elections as a “blueprint for rigging democracy,” Gandhi claimed the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance’s victory was not the result of a fair contest but of deliberate manipulation.
Sharing his article on social media platform X, he wrote, “How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy. My article shows how this happened, step by step.”
“It’s not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing - the side that cheats might win the game, but damages institutions and destroy public faith in the result. All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers. Because the match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing. Match-fixed elections are a poison for any democracy,” he added.
Gandhi’s op-ed details what he calls an “insidious plan” by the BJP to compromise the integrity of India’s electoral process. He singled out the 2023 Election Commissioners Appointment Act, which replaced the Chief Justice of India with the Union Home Minister in the panel responsible for appointing election commissioners.
According to Gandhi, this change ensures that the opposition’s nominee—the Leader of Opposition—is outvoted in all decisions, undermining the impartiality of the Election Commission.
“The decision to place a cabinet minister instead of the Chief Justice on the selection committee does not pass the smell test. Ask yourself, why would someone go out of their way to remove a neutral arbiter in an important institution? To ask the question is to know the answer,” Gandhi wrote.
Pointing to discrepancies in voter data between the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections, Gandhi cited Election Commission figures showing a sudden spike of 41 lakh new voters in Maharashtra within five months—compared to an increase of just 31 lakh over the preceding five years. He also flagged a dramatic rise in voter turnout after 5 p.m. on polling day, which he said jumped by 7.83 percentage points, or nearly 76 lakh votes.
“There are yet more anomalies. There are about 1 lakh booths in Maharashtra, but most added voters were targeted in only about 12,000 booths across 85 constituencies in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had performed poorly in the last Lok Sabha elections. That’s an average of over 600 voters at each booth after 5 pm. Optimistically assuming that each voter needs a minute to vote, voting would need to continue for 10 hours. Since this never happened, it begs the question — how were the extra votes cast?” Gandhi questioned in his piece.
Using Kamthi as a case study, Gandhi noted that while Congress’s vote share remained consistent across both polls, the BJP’s tally surged by 56,000 votes between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections—helped, he said, by the addition of 35,000 new voters in the constituency.
“This jump came from the bank of 35,000 new voters added in Kamthi between the two elections. It appears almost all voters who had not voted in the Lok Sabha and almost all the 35,000 new additions were magnetically drawn to the BJP. It is not hard to discern the lotus shape of the magnet,” he wrote.
The Congress leader accused the Election Commission of either ignoring or aggressively dismissing these concerns.
“The EC has met all Opposition queries with silence and even aggression. It summarily dismissed requests to make available voter rolls with photos for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections,” he stated.
Gandhi’s strongly worded piece marks one of the most pointed public indictments of the Election Commission by a sitting Leader of Opposition.
While opposition parties have previously questioned the fairness of recent elections, this may be the first time such charges have been laid out so comprehensively in an official platform by a national leader.
In an op-ed published in The Indian Express on Saturday, Gandhi alleged that the election was manipulated through a systematic subversion of democratic institutions, warning that similar tactics may be used in the upcoming Bihar polls.
Describing the Maharashtra elections as a “blueprint for rigging democracy,” Gandhi claimed the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance’s victory was not the result of a fair contest but of deliberate manipulation.
Sharing his article on social media platform X, he wrote, “How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy. My article shows how this happened, step by step.”
“It’s not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing - the side that cheats might win the game, but damages institutions and destroy public faith in the result. All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers. Because the match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing. Match-fixed elections are a poison for any democracy,” he added.
Gandhi’s op-ed details what he calls an “insidious plan” by the BJP to compromise the integrity of India’s electoral process. He singled out the 2023 Election Commissioners Appointment Act, which replaced the Chief Justice of India with the Union Home Minister in the panel responsible for appointing election commissioners.
According to Gandhi, this change ensures that the opposition’s nominee—the Leader of Opposition—is outvoted in all decisions, undermining the impartiality of the Election Commission.
“The decision to place a cabinet minister instead of the Chief Justice on the selection committee does not pass the smell test. Ask yourself, why would someone go out of their way to remove a neutral arbiter in an important institution? To ask the question is to know the answer,” Gandhi wrote.
Pointing to discrepancies in voter data between the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections, Gandhi cited Election Commission figures showing a sudden spike of 41 lakh new voters in Maharashtra within five months—compared to an increase of just 31 lakh over the preceding five years. He also flagged a dramatic rise in voter turnout after 5 p.m. on polling day, which he said jumped by 7.83 percentage points, or nearly 76 lakh votes.
“There are yet more anomalies. There are about 1 lakh booths in Maharashtra, but most added voters were targeted in only about 12,000 booths across 85 constituencies in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had performed poorly in the last Lok Sabha elections. That’s an average of over 600 voters at each booth after 5 pm. Optimistically assuming that each voter needs a minute to vote, voting would need to continue for 10 hours. Since this never happened, it begs the question — how were the extra votes cast?” Gandhi questioned in his piece.
Using Kamthi as a case study, Gandhi noted that while Congress’s vote share remained consistent across both polls, the BJP’s tally surged by 56,000 votes between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections—helped, he said, by the addition of 35,000 new voters in the constituency.
“This jump came from the bank of 35,000 new voters added in Kamthi between the two elections. It appears almost all voters who had not voted in the Lok Sabha and almost all the 35,000 new additions were magnetically drawn to the BJP. It is not hard to discern the lotus shape of the magnet,” he wrote.
The Congress leader accused the Election Commission of either ignoring or aggressively dismissing these concerns.
“The EC has met all Opposition queries with silence and even aggression. It summarily dismissed requests to make available voter rolls with photos for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections,” he stated.
Gandhi’s strongly worded piece marks one of the most pointed public indictments of the Election Commission by a sitting Leader of Opposition.
While opposition parties have previously questioned the fairness of recent elections, this may be the first time such charges have been laid out so comprehensively in an official platform by a national leader.
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