‘Vote chori’, rigged polls real: Congress after over 2 crore voters excluded in Maharashtra SIR

The Congress on Monday renewed its allegations of “vote chori” and “rigged” elections after more than 2.06 crore electors were excluded from Maharashtra’s electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), claiming the development vindicated concerns earlier raised by Rahul Gandhi over the integrity of the state’s voter lists.

Congress media and publicity department chairman Pawan Khera questioned why the BJP and the Election Commission of India (ECI) had expressed “complete confidence” in the electoral rolls used during the 2024 elections when the Congress had flagged what it described as an abnormally high addition of voters between the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly polls.

“The BJP-ECI’s lies are now hanging like an albatross around their neck,” Khera said, alleging that the scale of exclusions during the SIR had raised serious questions over the accuracy of the earlier electoral rolls.

Congress questions 2024 voter rolls

Khera said nearly two crore electors had now been excluded from Maharashtra’s rolls and claimed the ECI itself had acknowledged that nearly 40 lakh voters were added during the five-month period between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

In a post on X, the Congress leader said Rahul Gandhi and his party had raised questions about the sharp increase at the time but their concerns were rejected by both the BJP and the poll body.

Khera argued that the latest revision had reopened questions about those electoral rolls. “If the voter list was impeccable just two years ago, why are nearly 2 crore voters being excluded now? If it wasn’t beyond reproach, why did the BJP-ECI insist so confidently that it was?” he asked.

The Congress leader alleged that the developments supported Gandhi’s repeated accusations of irregularities in electoral rolls and questioned whether the voter lists used during the Maharashtra Assembly elections accurately reflected the state’s eligible electorate.

Khera questions Fadnavis govt’s legitimacy

Khera went further to question the legitimacy of the Maharashtra government headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, linking the controversy over electoral rolls to the mandate received by the BJP-led alliance in the 2024 Assembly polls.

“And what does this faulty voter list from two years ago say about the legitimacy of Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister and the BJP as Maharashtra’s ruling party?” he asked.

“The writing is on the wall: Vote chori is real. Rigged elections are real. Imposed governments are real,” Khera alleged.

Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly accused the BJP and the Election Commission of manipulating electoral rolls to influence election outcomes, allegations rejected by the ruling party and the poll body.

The latest Congress attack centres on the distinction between the voter rolls used for the 2024 elections and the exclusions emerging from the ongoing SIR exercise. The party is seeking an explanation for how such a large number of names could face exclusion during the revision if the earlier electoral rolls had been accurate.

The exclusions under SIR, however, do not by themselves establish that the affected entries represented fraudulent votes or that they influenced the outcome of previous elections. The Congress allegations regarding “vote chori” and the legitimacy of the Maharashtra government remain political claims.