Rahul Gandhi vs Election Commission ahead of Bihar polls: What's the controversy?

As Bihar gears up for its upcoming elections, political temperatures are rising and so is the war of words. At the center of the latest political storm is Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI). Accusing the poll body of lacking transparency and fairness, Gandhi has demanded the release of consolidated, machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage from polling booths in Maharashtra. Gandhi's fresh claims have ignited a fierce political and institutional face-off.

WHY IS RAHUL GANDHI UPSET?

In the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a dominant victory, winning 235 out of 288 seats. The opposition alliance, Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprised of the Congress (16 seats), Shiv Sena (UBT) (20 seats), and NCP (SP) (10 seats), failed to win enough seats to even qualify for the post of Leader of the Opposition, an unprecedented outcome in over six decades.

Shortly after the election results were declared, the Congress party accused the Election Commission of complicity in large-scale voter list manipulation. The party alleged that duplicate voter ID numbers were used to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Now, with the Bihar elections approaching, Rahul Gandhi has reignited those same allegations, intensifying his criticism of the poll body.

WHAT RAHUL GANDHI SAID

Addressing the Election Commission directly, Rahul Gandhi stated, "Dear EC, You are a Constitutional body. Releasing unsigned, evasive notes to intermediaries is not the way to respond to serious questions. If you have nothing to hide, answer the questions in my article and prove it by publishing consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for the most recent elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas of all states, including Maharashtra, and releasing all post-5pm CCTV footage from Maharashtra polling booths. Evasion won't protect your credibility. Telling the truth will."

In a newspaper article on Saturday, Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, claimed that the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections were a "blueprint for rigging democracy" and alleged that this "match-fixing" would next happen in Bihar.

WHAT ELECTION COMMISSION SAID

The Election Commission on Saturday dismissed Rahul Gandhi's claims of last year's Maharashtra Assembly election results being rigged as vague and "completely absurd", issuing a point-by-point rebuttal to the Congress MP's voter fraud allegations.

In its 6-point rebuttal, the poll body said all Indian elections are held as per Law. The scale and accuracy with which elections are held in India are widely acclaimed across the world.

It said, "Any misinformation being spread, by anyone, is not only a sign of disrespect towards 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."

BJP SLAMS RAHUL

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday slammed Rahul Gandhi and accused him of repeatedly insulting the democratic process, despite being "rejected by people".

“Rahul Gandhi consistently insults the democratic process. He repeatedly disrespects the public mandate. People have rejected Rahul Gandhi, and in retaliation, he is rejecting the people. This will only push the Congress party further into decline,” Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis, in a news article on Sunday, questioned Gandhi, asking, “By constantly casting doubts on the democratic process and constitutional institutions, where is this leading the country? What kind of poison is being spread?”

“I understand how deeply the defeat in Maharashtra must have hurt. But if you continue to insult the will of the farmers, women, citizens, and the people of Maharashtra like this, then the people of the state will never forgive you. As the Chief Minister and a servant of the people, I will always condemn such an insult to the people of Maharashtra,” Fadnavis said.

Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Saturday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his allegation of election rigging in the Maharashtra polls, saying that he is "troubled by electoral defeats".

"Rahul Gandhi is troubled by electoral defeats. With these defeats, he keeps making such allegations to hide his own performance and the performance of his party. If I ask Rahul Gandhi, when elections occurred in 2009 when there were governments of his party at the Centre and in the State, there were 7.29 crore voters in Maharashtra during Lok Sabha elections," Bawankule told ANI.

TEJASHWI YADAV QUESTIONS EC

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav echoed Rahul Gandhi's remarks and alleged that BJP IT Cell knows the dates of elections before the ECI announces.

He said on Sunday, "You all know that after 2014, since Narendra Modi became PM, all the constitutional institutions have been hijacked. BJP IT Cell knows the dates of elections before the ECI announces. We are keeping an eye on the matter. But the constitutional institutions should function honestly."

"If they are influenced, there wouldn't be any justice. In the last 2020 elections, we had formed the government. The ECI did three PCs to justify, why the counting was stopped in evening? Why it resumed in the night? Those candidates who were announced as winners were later announced as losers..."