Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s renewed allegations of “match-fixing” in the November 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has reissued a document originally released in April, calling the Congress leader’s claims “completely absurd.”
In an op-ed published in The Indian Express, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha raised fresh concerns about the conduct of the Maharashtra elections. Despite outperforming the BJP-led alliance in the Lok Sabha polls earlier that year, the Congress, along with its allies – the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction – suffered a heavy defeat in the state elections.
The ECI statement reads, “Unsubstantiated allegations raised against the Electoral Rolls of Maharashtra are affront to the rule of law. The Election Commission had brought out all these facts in its reply to the INC on 24th December 2024 itself, which is available on ECI’s website. It appears that all these facts are completely being ignored while raising such issues again and again…”The ECI stated that spreading misinformation is “disrespect towards law,” and attempts to defame are “completely absurd.”
“Any misinformation being spread, by anyone, is not only a sign of disrespect towards the Law, but also brings disrepute to the thousands of representatives appointed by their own political party and demotivates lakhs of election staff who work untiringly and transparently during elections. After any unfavourable verdict by the voters, trying to defame the Election Commission by saying that it is compromised, is completely absurd,” read the reply.
