On Friday, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi raised alarms over the sudden surge in new voters in Maharashtra, particularly between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. Gandhi pointed out that a staggering 39 lakh new voters were added in just five months after the Lok Sabha polls, a sharp contrast to the 32 lakh added over a span of five years between the 2019 Vidhan Sabha and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing the media at the Constitution Club in Delhi, alongside Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders Sanjay Raut and Supriya Sule, Gandhi voiced his concerns about irregularities in the voter registration process. “We have thoroughly examined the voter lists and voting patterns, and our findings suggest significant irregularities,” Gandhi said.
He questioned why more voters were added in just five months after the Lok Sabha elections than in the previous five years. “Why were 39 lakh new voters added in five months following the Lok Sabha elections, when only 32 lakh were added in five years before?” Gandhi asked. “Who are these 39 lakh people?”
Gandhi also raised doubts over the voter registration figures, noting that the number of registered voters in Maharashtra appeared to exceed the total adult population of the state. “The government claims Maharashtra’s adult population is 9.54 crore, yet the Election Commission’s data shows more voters than the state’s adult population,” he said, calling it a sudden and unexplained surge in registered voters.
Further, Gandhi highlighted that while the number of voters supporting parties like Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP-SCP remained stable across the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, the rise in new voters seemed to benefit the BJP. “In one constituency, for example, Congress received 1.36 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha 2024 elections and 1.34 lakh votes in the Vidhan Sabha elections,” Gandhi said. “However, the BJP saw a boost in votes—1.9 lakh in Lok Sabha and 1.75 lakh in the Vidhan Sabha—with 35,000 new voters contributing to their victory.”
The Leader of Opposition demanded the Election Commission release the voter lists for both the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, including names and addresses of voters. “We’ve requested the voter lists from the Election Commission to better understand who these new voters are,” he stated. “There have been many voters removed from the list or transferred from one booth to another, most of whom belong to Dalit, tribal, and minority communities.”
He also criticized the Election Commission for failing to respond to his requests. “We’ve made repeated requests to the Election Commission, but they have not responded. The only reason they wouldn’t respond is that something is wrong with what they’ve done,” Gandhi concluded, adding that his claims were based on data, not accusations.
In response, the Election Commission posted a statement on X, saying, “ECI considers political parties as priority stakeholders and deeply values their views, suggestions, and questions. The Commission will respond in writing with a full factual and procedural matrix uniformly adopted across the country.”
