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New Delhi: Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday mounted his attack on the Election Commission, accusing it of colluding with the BJP to influence elections. He pointed out that he BJP is the only party in a democratic framework that is not affected by anti-incumbency. Gandhi also raised doubt over the accuracy of voter list and wondered if fake people are being added to the voter list.
Addressing a press conference, Gandhi said, "The foundation of our Constitution is based on the fact that one person gets one vote. And so, when we're planning elections, the most fundamental thing is how secure the idea of one person, one vote is. Are the right people being allowed to vote? Are fake people being added to the voter list? Is the voter list accurate? There has been suspicion among the public based on a couple of points."
'BJP magically immune to anti-incumbency'
The Congress leader alleged that "choreographed election schedule" and BJP's "huge victory margins" in elections raised doubts over transparency of the process. He also said that the anti-incumbency hits every single party but the BJP seems to be the only party that is not affected by it. "Millions of Indians were suspicious about BJP 'magically' immune to anti-incumbency, huge and unexpected victory margins for BJP, opinion and exit polls way off the mark, organised 'mahaul' building by media and choreographed election schedule," he added.
'EC colluded with BJP to steal elections in Maharashtra'
The Congress leader further said that that Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) drubbing in the Maharashtra Assembly polls raised their suspicion. "Our alliance, which had swept the Lok Sabha elections just a few months back, was wiped out in the Vidhan Sabha elections, which was very suspicious," he said.
Gandhi said that before the Maharashtra polls, his party was not able to articulate the reason and logic behind its suspicion. "But in Haryana and Maharashtra, we saw it right in front of us," the Congress leader said.
"What is the crux of the problem? The voter list is the property of this country. The Election Commission absolutely refuses to give us the voter list. We requested a machine-readable Maharashtra voter list, but the EC rejected our plea. Machine-readable formats are key because we need soft copies to analyse the data," he added.
Gandhi also alleged that ahead of Assembly polls in Maharashtra, more voters were added in five months than in five years, which he said which was a "staggering fact". "Additionally, the number of voters added exceeded the entire population of certain areas, which was surprising," he added.
The Congress leader alleged that there was a huge jump in voter turnout after 5 pm in Maharashtra "But our people and alliance partners knew that didn't happen in the polling booths. There were no large lines after 5:30 pm. These two things made us believe with reasonable certainty that the Election Commission of India was colluding with the BJP to steal elections," he added.
He claimed that his party had evidence at the larger state level in Maharashtra, showing voters had been added. However, we didn't know how they were added, where they came from, or how the system works," Gandhi said.
