Stop insulting people of Maharashtra, BJP leader tells Rahul Gandhi

BJP leader Chandrashekhar Bawankule advised Rahul Gandhi to study the 2009 voters’ list to understand the increase in voters. File | Photo Credit: PTI

A war of words broke out in Maharashtra after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election a blueprint for “rigging democracy”.

While the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday (June 7, 2025) called Mr. Gandhi’s allegations “absurd” and “unsubstantiated”, the BJP slammed the MP, advising him to “introspect”. 

Mr. Gandhi’s article titled ‘Match-Fixing Maharashtra’, published on Saturday (June 7, 2025), created a stir in the State as he alleged that the BJP won the Assembly election by rigging and that this will be repeated in the upcoming Bihar Assembly election.

Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis slammed Mr. Gandhi for “insulting” the people of Maharashtra and asked him to work on the ground. “He should stop lying to himself. Until he doesn’t know the ground-level facts, his party will never win,” he said. 

‘People trusted us’

BJP leader and Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule pointed out that after the Lok Sabha election results, the Congress became overconfident and failed to work during the Assembly election. He said that during the Lok Sabha election, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (comprising the Congress and other parties) received 2.50 crore votes, while the Mahayuti (grouping of BJP and others) got 2.48 crore votes. In the Assembly election, Mahayuti received 3.17 crore votes, and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) got 2.17 crore votes. “So, people trusted us,” said Mr. Bawankule.

He advised Mr. Gandhi to study the 2009 voters’ list to understand the increase in voters. “His party will not grow unless he comes out of the dark shadow of defeat,” the Minister said.

The MVA took the lead in the Lok Sabha election, winning 31 seats, whereas Mahayuti won only 17 seats. In the Assembly election, Mahayuti won 230 seats, while the MVA was restricted to 46.

Torchlight rally

The Congress has decided to take out a torchlight procession in Maharashtra on June 12 to draw the people’s attention to the “rigging”. State Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal said, “We will organise the rally to create awareness among people on the vote theft pattern.” 

Published - June 07, 2025 10:35 pm IST