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After ECI invited the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to discuss the issues related to his allegation on the Maharashtra assembly election held last year, Congress leader Sukhdeo Bhagat on Tuesday said that it is the duty of election commission o conduct free and fair elections.
Speaking to ANI, Bhagat said, "It is the duty of the Election Commission to conduct free and fair elections. Ever since Rahul Gandhi has raised questions, the EC has changed its rules...The EC needs to be unbiased, but what if it is under suspicion?..." According to the sources, the letter was sent via email on June 12 and was also received at his residence. The former Congress President has recently raised allegations against the poll body of "election rigging' in the Maharashtra assembly polls. However, ECI has rejected the allegations. Gandhi has further raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process, citing the destruction of evidence as a potential indicator of election rigging against the backdrop of the Election Commission's (EC) revised guidelines on preserving video footage and photographs of elections, reducing the retention period to 45 days. Earlier in the day, Gandhi claimed that the voter list grew by eight per cent in just five months in Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's constituency, labelling it as "vote theft". In a post on X, Gandhi shared a news article, demanding the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage. The former Congress President claimed that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) reported unknown individuals casting votes in Nagpur South West, where Fadnavis won last year by over 38,000 votes. He also pointed out that the media have also uncovered thousands of voters with no verified address. "In Maharashtra CM's constituency, the voter list grew by 8% in just 5 months. Some booths saw a 20-50% surge. BLOs reported unknown individuals casting votes. Media uncovered thousands of voters with no verified address," Gandhi said on X. "And the EC? Silent - or complicit. These aren't isolated glitches. This is vote theft. The cover-up is the confession," he alleged."That's why we demand the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage," Gandhi said. (ANI)
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