Mumbai, June 24 (PTI) Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, alleging that eight per cent rise in voters in five months in his Nagpur South West constituency amounted to “electoral fraud”.
Sapkal alleged that evidence continues to emerge daily, suggesting that the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance came to power in Maharashtra by manipulating votes during the 2024 state assembly elections.
Congress’ Prafulla Gudadhe Patil, who unsuccessfully contested last year’s assembly elections against Fadnavis from the Nagpur South West assembly constituency, demanded the BJP’s leader’s resignation as an MLA and CM, claiming that the ruling party colluded with the Election Commission as part of a “conspiracy” to win the election.
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a post on X, alleged irregularities in the state assembly polls, claiming that there weren’t isolated glitches but “vote theft”, while Fadnavis countered his claim, pointing out that more than 25 constituencies in Maharashtra saw more than eight per cent increase in voter numbers between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
Gandhi shared a media report that claimed that between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra assembly polls, Fadnavis’s constituency, Nagpur South West, added 29,219 new voters.
Sapkal said, “Rahul Gandhi has consistently raised the issue of electoral fraud. After the irregularities in BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s Kamthi constituency were exposed, it has now come to light that in CM Fadnavis’ Nagpur South West constituency, the voter count has increased by 8 per cent in just five months.” He charged that Fadnavis must take moral responsibility and resign, as the BJP’s “vote rigging” has been exposed.
The Congress leader, in a statement, reiterated Gandhi’s claims that the voter list in the chief minister’s constituency saw an 8 per cent rise in just five months, with certain booths witnessing a 20 to 50 per cent surge, while booth-level officers (BLOs) have reported that unknown individuals cast votes.
This is a case of vote rigging, which is why the Congress has demanded the immediate release of a machine-readable digital voter list and the CCTV footage, he said.
“The key question remains: how did the BJP alliance, which faced a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, secure a massive win in the assembly polls just five months later? During this period, the BJP, with the help of the Election Commission, manipulated the voter rolls and increased the vote count. There was an 8 per cent discrepancy between the votes recorded after 5 PM and the final figures announced the next day,” Sapkal alleged.
Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, Gudadhe Patil said the process of registering voters in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections was suspicious as 33,712 new voters were enrolled in the Nagpur South West constituency after the Lok Sabha elections held six months prior to that.
More than 100 voters were enrolled using a single mobile number, he said.
Secondly, the process is that Form 6 (application for inclusion of name in electoral rolls) can be submitted online as well offline, but the BLO should physically visit the residence of the voter for verification, he said.
“If the number of new voter registration rises by four per cent in one booth, then the supervisor and assistant returning officer (ARO) have to cross verify one per cent of voters. But this process was not followed and there was more than 4 percent increase in new voters in 70 perc ent booths. Similarly, more than 20 per cent new voters were enrolled in 38 booths. There were eight booths which saw more than 40 per cent new voters,” he said.
“Many fake voters were registered through a single computer and mobile. These are duplicate voters brought from some other assembly segments, city and states and enrolled here. They have won this election this way and this is basically a conspiracy, wherein the BJP in collusion with Election commission won this election,” Patil alleged.
When asked about Fadnavis rubbishing Gandhi’s charges, Patil said the Congress asked the question related to the Nagpur South West constituency, but the CM was talking about other constituencies.
“The question was asked to the Election Commission, but instead of the commission it is Fadnavis who is replying,” he said.
Fadnavis has won that election entirely by stealing votes, through corrupt ways, by spending crores of rupees, he claimed.
“Complete government machinery was influenced through the home ministry to win the elections. Hence it is his moral defeat. He should take its responsibility and resign as an MLA and the CM,” he alleged. PTI MR CLS ARU NP
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