Rahul Gandhi Claims “Match-Fixing” In Maharashtra Polls, BJP Responds

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has initiated a criticism of the Maharashtra assembly elections scheduled for November 2024, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is orchestrating a scheme of “match-fixing” to secure a win. The Mahayuti coalition, which includes the BJP, the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) under Ajit Pawar, won 235 out of 288 assembly seats. The BJP was responsible for 132 of these, marking its strongest performance ever in the state’s history.

Mr. Gandhi, in an opinion piece for The Indian Express, asserted that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) utilized a five-step framework to undermine the democratic process in the state.

“Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission, Step 2: Add fake voters to the roll, Step 3: Inflate voter turnout, Step 4: Target the bogus voting exactly where BJP needs to win, Step 5: Hide the evidence,” Mr Gandhi wrote in a post that accompanied a cutout of his op-ed.

In the 2024 elections, while the BJP achieved a sweeping victory, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) consisting of the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) was diminished to only 50 seats. For Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, who had seen their parties and symbols slip from their grasp in the prior months, the outcome represented a significant setback.

I am not talking of small-scale cheating, but of industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of our national institutions,” Mr Gandhi wrote in his article.

Mr Gandhi’s first contention centres on the changes brought by the BJP-led Centre in 2023 through the Election Commissioners Appointment Act. The Act replaced the Chief Justice of India with a Union Minister on the committee responsible for selecting Election Commissioners. Mr Gandhi argues that this shifted the balance decisively in favour of the executive.

“The decision to place a cabinet minister instead of the Chief Justice on the selection committee does not pass the smell test. Ask yourself, why would someone go out of their way to remove a neutral arbiter in an important institution? To ask the question is to know the answer,” Mr Gandhi wrote.

The Election Commission has maintained that its functioning remains autonomous and that it adheres strictly to constitutional laws.

The BJP has termed Mr Gandhi’s claims as “disgraceful”.

“Rahul Gandhi is back to his disgraceful antics of demonising the country’s institutions. These issues have been repeatedly addressed by the EC in absolute detail,” said the BJP’s Tuhin Sinha.

Mr. Gandhi stated that the registered voter count in Maharashtra grew from 8.98 crore during the 2019 assembly elections to 9.29 crore in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, marking an increase of 31 lakh over five years. However, within the following five months, before the November assembly election, this number allegedly increased by another 41 lakh, totaling 9.70 crore, he asserted.

The BJP minimized Mr. Gandhi’s extra voters’ allegation.

“This is normal procedure. A similar process was followed even before the Karnataka assembly elections, which the Congress won. Besides, Rahul Gandhi has himself quoted different figures at different times,” said Mr Sinha.

The Election Commission attributed the increase to greater youth participation and a targeted campaign to enrol new voters. But Mr Gandhi dismissed this explanation.