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The Election Commission had written a detailed letter to Congress in December last year rejecting its "misleading" claims about voter turnout data in Maharashtra polls and, instead of writing to the poll panel directly, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi keeps speaking and writing to media seeking answers to his "same unfounded doubts again and again", ECI sources said on Saturday.
They said it is not clear as to why Rahul Gandhi is shying away from writing to EC in person himself and get a reply. ECI sources said that the poll panel had extended an invitation to the Indian National Congress (INC) for interaction, which was scheduled for May 15. However, the meeting was later cancelled at the request of INC itself. ECI has been conducting training sessions for Booth Level Agents (BLAs) nominated by political parties. Several BLAs from the Congress party have already undergone training at IIIDEM.The sources said the Commission remains open to extending similar training on the electoral process to senior leaders of the INC. Such training may help dispel any self-created doubts regarding the integrity of the electoral process, they said. Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, wrote an article in English daily, on Saturday alleging "rigging" in Maharashtra assembly polls, and following a response to his allegations, alleged that the poll panel was "releasing unsigned, evasive notes" in response to his queries. He demanded that EC should publish consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for the most recent elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas of all states including Maharashtra. Earlier in the day, ECI had described as "unsubstantiated" the allegations made by Rahul Gandhi in his newspaper article. "Unsubstantiated allegations raised against the Electoral Rolls of Maharashtra are affront to the rule of law. The Election Commission had brought out all these facts in its reply to the INC on December 24, 2024 itself, which is available on ECI's website. It appears that all these facts are completely being ignored while raising such issues again and again," ECI said. "Any misinformation being spread, by anyone, is not only a sign of disrespect towards the 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," it added. (ANI)
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