Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress MP and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Saturday claimed that the Maharashtra Assembly Elections were rigged in the BJP's favour last year.
In his Indian Express op-ed titled 'Match-Fixing Maharashtra', Gandhi shared a step-by-step account of how he believed the election results were rigged. Taking it to X, he posted, "Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy."
In his tweet, Rahul further went on to claim that the BJP is looking to rig the Bihar Assembly elections, scheduled for later this year. "Because the match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing," he wrote.
In his X post, Rahul claimed that the BJP deployed a detailed five-step process to derail the Maharashtra Assembly elections and results.
"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", Rahul's X post read.
In his op-ed, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Modi-led central government introduced the amended Election Commissioners Appointment Act 2023 to turn the results in their favour.
Following the implementation of the Act, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was replaced with a Union Minister in the selection committee, who was responsible for selecting Election Commissioners. 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.
In the 2024 elections, while the BJP registered a landslide victory in Maharashtra with 132 seats while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) formed by the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), and Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) managed to win 50 seats only.
