NEW DELHI: Sources within the Election Commission on Tuesday issued a powerful rebuttal of the Congress celebration’s fee that the voter listing within the Maharashtra Assembly polls used to be manipulated. According to EC resources, all through the Assembly Elections in Maharashtra, 6,40,87,588 electors, who arrived on the polling station between 7 am and 6 pm, forged their votes. About 58 lakh votes have been polled in keeping with hour on reasonable. Going by means of those reasonable traits, just about 116 Lakh electorate can have voted within the final two hours. Therefore, casting of 65 lakhs votes by means of electors in two hours is far underneath the common hourly vote casting traits.
Sources additional said that during each polling sales space, vote casting proceeded within the presence of polling brokers officially appointed by means of applicants or political events. Indian National Congress’ nominated applicants or their accepted brokers have no longer raised any substantiated allegations with reference to any roughly atypical vote casting on the time of scrutiny prior to the Returning Officer (RO) and the Election Observers on tomorrow.
Electoral Rolls in India, together with the ones in Maharashtra, are ready in response to the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. As in keeping with regulation, both simply prior to the elections and/or as soon as annually, Special Summary Revision of the Electoral Rolls is carried out and a last reproduction of the Electoral Rolls is passed over to the entire National/State political events, together with the Congress.
After the finalisation of those Electoral Rolls all through the Maharashtra elections, as towards 9,77,90,752 Electors, just a overall of 89 appeals have been filed prior to the primary appellate authority (DM), and just one attraction used to be filed prior to the second one appellate authority (CEO). Therefore, it’s amply transparent that there used to be no complaint of the INC or some other political events prior to the behavior of the Maharashtra Assembly Elections in 2024, mentioned EC resources.
During the revision of electoral rolls for 1,00,427 Polling Booths, together with 97,325 Booth-Level Officers, 1,03,727 Booth-Level Agents have been additionally appointed by means of all Political Parties, together with 27,099 by means of the Congress. Therefore, those unsubstantiated allegations raised towards the Electoral Rolls of Maharashtra are an affront to the guideline of regulation, resources added.
The EC’s reaction follows Rahul Gandhi’s allegation, made whilst addressing the diaspora in Boston within the United States, that the Election Commission (EC) in India is “compromised,” additional mentioning that there’s something basically incorrect with the machine. Citing the instance of the Maharashtra elections, the senior Congress chief alleged that 65 lakh electorate have been added to the voter listing in two hours, which used to be unimaginable.
“More people voted in the Maharashtra Assembly elections than there are adults in the State of Maharashtra. The Election Commission provided us with a voting figure for 5:30 PM, and between 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM, 65 lakh voters cast their votes. This is physically impossible to happen. To vote, a voter typically requires approximately three minutes. If you do the Math, it would mean that there were lines of voters until 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,” he claimed.
“It’s very clear to us that the Election Commission is compromised, and there is something very wrong with the system. I have said this multiple times, ” Gandhi additional mentioned. According to resources within the EC, the Commission had introduced those info in its respond to the Congress on December 24, 2024, and it sounds as if that those info have been totally overpassed whilst elevating such problems again and again.
EC resources additional mentioned, all Indian elections are held in response to the regulation. The scale and accuracy with which elections are carried out in India are broadly acclaimed international. The whole country is mindful that every election procedure, together with the preparation of electoral rolls, polling, and counting, is carried out by means of Government personnel and that, too, within the presence of accepted representatives officially appointed by means of political events or applicants from the polling station as much as the constituency stage.
Any incorrect information being unfold, by means of any person, isn’t just an indication of disrespect in opposition to the Law, but additionally brings disrepute to the hundreds of representatives appointed by means of their very own political celebration and demotivates lakhs of election personnel who paintings untiringly and transparently all through elections. After any damaging verdict by means of the electorate, making an attempt to defame the Election Commission by means of claiming it’s compromised is totally absurd.