Congress did not flag abnormal voting during Maharashtra polls: EC sources on Rahul's allegations

New Delhi | Election Commission sources on Tuesday rejected Rahul Gandhi's allegations of abnormal voter turnout in the last two hours of the assembly polls in Maharashtra, asserting that the Congress did not flag any such abnormality during or after voting.

On Monday, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged in Boston, US, that, in simple terms, more people voted in the Maharashtra assembly election than there were adults in the state.

"The Election Commission gave us a voting figure for 5:30 pm, and between 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm, 65 lakh voters voted. This is physically impossible. For a voter to vote, it takes approximately three minutes and, if you do the math, it would mean that there were lines of voters till 2 am but this did not happen," he had said.

Rejecting the claims, the sources underlined that 6,40,87,588 (6.40 crore) electors who reached the polling stations from 7 am to 6 pm voted in the Maharashtra polls.

About 58 lakh votes were polled per hour on an average, they said.

Going by the average trend, nearly 1.16 crore voters could have voted in the last two hours, they added.

"Therefore, casting of 65 lakh votes by electors in two hours is much below the average hourly voting trend," an Election Commission (EC) functionary pointed out.

The sources noted that voting progressed in the presence of polling agents formally appointed by candidates or political parties in every polling booth.

The Congress' nominated candidates or their authorised agents had not raised "any substantiated allegations" regarding any kind of abnormal voting at the time of scrutiny before returning officers and election observers the next day.

On the issue of alleged fudging of electoral data, the sources said voter lists in India, including Maharashtra, were prepared according to the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

According to the law, either just before the elections or once every year, special summary revision of electoral rolls is conducted and its final copy handed over to all national or state political parties.

After the finalisation of electoral rolls for the Maharashtra polls, as against 9,77,90,752 (9.72 crore) electors, only 89 appeals were filed before the first appellate authority -- the district magistrate concerned -- and only one before the second appellate authority -- the state chief electoral officer.

"Therefore, it is amply clear that there was no grievance of the Congress or any other political party before the conduct of the Maharashtra assembly election in 2024," the functionary said.

During the voter list revision, for over one lakh polling booths, along with 97,325 booth-level officers appointed by electoral registration officers, 1,03,727 (1.03 lakh) booth-level agents were also appointed by all political parties.

These included 27,099 booth-level agents appointed by Congress.

"Therefore, these unsubstantiated allegations raised against the electoral rolls of Maharashtra are an affront to the rule of the law," the functionary asserted.