Rahul Gandhi Falsely Claims Maharashtra Voter Turnout Exceeds Adult Population: Here's the Truth

Congress MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi is currently on a two-day visit to the United States. He began his trip with his usual approach of deflecting attention from his own shortcomings by blaming the ‘system.’ While addressing the Indian diaspora at an event in Boston, Gandhi asserted that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is ‘compromised.’

Rahul Gandhi during the press conference at Delhi's Constitution Club | India Today

Suggesting that the electoral process was manipulated to benefit the Bhartiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti Alliance in the Maharashtra elections, the Congress leader claimed that there was something “very wrong with the system.”

Referencing the Maharashtra elections, Rahul Gandhi alleged that 65 lakh voters were added to the voter turnout within two hours, a scenario he described as impossible.

“It is very clear to us that the Election Commission is compromised, and it is very clear that there is something wrong with the system. I have said this multiple times…More people voted in the Maharashtra Assembly elections than there are adults in Maharashtra. The Election Commission gave us a voting figure for 5:30 PM and between 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM, 65 lakh voters voted. This is physically impossible. For a voter to vote, it takes approx 3 minutes, and if you do the Math, it would mean that there were lines of voters till 2 AM, but this did not happen…When we asked them for the videography, they not only refused but they also changed the law so that now we are not allowed to ask for the videography…” Gandhi said.

In the meantime, the BJP launched a strong criticism of Rahul Gandhi regarding his accusations about India's democratic systems, with the party's spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla stating, “Rahul Gandhi is a serial offender. He has taken SUPARI against Indian institutions. Every time he’s on foreign soil, in BJP Virodh he undertakes Badnami of Bharat. If he wins an election, ECI is fine. If he wins a court case, judiciary is fine. Otherwise, he will abuse and insult Indian institutions. First, he says I will fight Indian state and now he is doing Badnami of Bharat.”

The BJP-led Mahayuti coalition notably secured 235 out of 288 seats in the last Maharashtra assembly elections, delivering a significant blow to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, which includes Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena (UBT).

The historic victory of the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra, which defied all MVA expectations, has severely impacted the Congress party. Rahul Gandhi's repeated attempts to revive the ‘Democracy in danger’ narrative reflect this frustration. However, given that the Congress leader chose to criticize India's electoral process and question the credibility of the Indian Election Commission abroad, it is crucial to expose the inaccuracies in his claims regarding alleged discrepancies in the 2024 Maharashtra elections.

Rahul Gandhi Promoting Debunked Falsehoods Abroad

In November 2024, immediately following the historic victory of the BJP-led alliance in the Maharashtra assembly elections, opposition parties and their allies launched their usual ‘EVM hack’ narrative instead of accepting the people's verdict gracefully. The left-wing outlet TheWire took the lead in this false ‘Hum haare nahin hain, humein haraya gaya hai’ campaign, aiming to undermine the credibility of the Election Commission and the electoral process itself. TheWire alleged that 5,04,313 extra votes had been cast during the Maharashtra state elections.

However, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra swiftly debunked these claims. He pointed out that TheWire’s report had erroneously included 5,38,225 postal ballots in the vote tally, which were not part of the official vote count released by the CEO of Maharashtra. The actual total of 6,40,88,195 votes cast across all 288 Assembly seats through EVMs was misrepresented as the total votes cast.

“The fact is that 5,38,225 valid postal ballots were not added in this figure. When we add the 5,38,225 valid postal ballots to the 6,40,88,195 votes polled through EVMs; the total votes polled come out to be 6,46,26,420. The total votes counted on the day of the counting including postal ballots is 6,45,92,508. Hence, the total votes counted are not more than the total votes polled,” the ECI official said.

The CEO of Maharashtra also provided an explanation for why, in certain constituencies, the number of votes counted was lower than what is required by the established procedure and clarified that “The EVM counting is not taken up if Mock Poll Data was not cleared from the Control Unit of the Polling Station before actual start of Poll or if there is non-display of result in the display panel of Control Unit or there was mismatch in data reported in Form 17C and votes recorded in EVM due to clerical or typing human error. In such cases, as the winning margin was higher than the total votes polled in these Polling Stations, counting of VVPAT Slips of these Polling Stations was not done as per instructions contained in Para No.7(iv)(b) of ECIs letter dated 19.07.2023.”

To elaborate on the voting percentage calculation, the CEO of Maharashtra stated, “In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections, the Voting percentage at 5 pm was 58.22% (approximate) and the final voting percentage was 66.05%. This is normal as voting continues even after 6 pm, till the last person who stood at the queue at 6 pm votes. Even in 2019, the percentages were 54.43% (approximate) at 5 pm and 61.10% at the final. Many voters come in the evening in urban and semi-urban areas, which constitute a large chunk in Maharashtra.  It is important to note that two-hourly voter turnout information on the day of poll upto 5 pm is based on oral telephonic communication only. On the other hand,  Form-17C which is given at the ‘Close of Poll’ to polling agents, matches with the final percentage and votes counted. Information in Form-17 C is matched by the Candidate’s counting agents while counting.”

The opposition parties and journalist-turned-YouTuber propagandists have widely utilized the falsehoods spread by TheWire in its report to undermine the Election Commission’s credibility, suggesting that the BJP’s victory was the result of some form of rigging. Additionally, in February this year, Rahul Gandhi alleged that over 7 million voters had been suspiciously added between the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.

Interestingly, just days ago, the Election Commission dismissed the accusations of irregularities in Maharashtra’s electoral roll, which was published in January this year. According to the Special Summary Revision (SSR) conducted in early January 2025, there were very few appeals under Section 24 of the Representation of People Act, or requests for corrections under Sections 22 and 23 regarding Electoral Rolls. The SSR is a process aimed at ensuring a fair and transparent voting system, adding new eligible voters—such as those turning 18 or changing constituencies—and removing duplicate or deceased voters.

The Election Commission reported that only 89 appeals were made to the district election office, with just one appeal directed to the chief electoral office, out of a total of 9.7 crore registered voters.

The ECI emphasized that this minimal number of appeals directly contradicts the claims made by opposition parties during the winter session of parliament.

“We received 89 first appeals that were cleared at the district level, and only one second appeal came up to the chief electoral office in Maharashtra,” an ECI official was quoted by TOI as saying.

The issue began when Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi called for a discussion in the Lok Sabha, accusing the inclusion of over 30 lakh voters in Maharashtra between 2019 and 2024 and alleging duplication of elector photo identity card (EPIC) numbers. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had previously clarified that duplication of EPIC numbers does not necessarily indicate duplicate or fake voters. The ECI also provided data on the total number of electors and the booth-level agents representing political parties across the country.

Despite the Election Commission debunking the false claims and propaganda from opposition parties aimed at undermining electoral integrity, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has gone abroad, continuing to spread misleading information to damage the reputation of India’s democratic process.

Rahul Gandhi's History of Damaging India's Reputation Abroad

This is not the first time Rahul Gandhi has traveled abroad under the guise of promoting a positive image of India. In fact, he has frequently sought foreign intervention in India’s internal affairs, attacked political opponents, raised alarms about ‘democracy in danger,’ met with individuals linked to anti-India and anti-Hindu organizations, and even secretly engaged with Chinese officials during a period of conflict with the country. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party have also been promoting narratives endorsed by George Soros, a known critic of Modi and advocate for regime change. During his 10-day U.S. tour in June 2023, Gandhi was seen alongside Sunita Vishwanath, the co-founder of a U.S.-based, Soros-affiliated anti-Hindu group called “Hindus for Human Rights,” in a photo shared by the Hudson Institute.

From signing MoUs with China’s Communist Party to engaging with groups pushing an Islamist agenda, and aligning with the anti-Modi stance to the point where it mirrors Pakistan’s position, Congress has repeatedly sought Western intervention to wrest power from India’s democratically elected government.

In April 2021, during a speech at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, Gandhi urged the U.S. government to take a stronger stance on "what is happening in India." Later, in 2022, at the ‘Ideas for India’ conference in the UK, Gandhi again called for foreign intervention, signaling his desire for outside involvement on two separate occasions.

In 2023, Rahul Gandhi visited Cambridge University to portray a distorted and negative image of India, falsely claiming that democracy was under threat from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s so-called ‘dictatorship.’ OpIndia has repeatedly reported how Gandhi has used his international trips to demand foreign interference in India’s internal matters.

By promoting false claims about the Election Commission of India (ECI) being compromised, Gandhi is attempting to shift blame for his party’s failures and evade accountability as a leader. His baseless accusations against the ECI, based on already debunked lies, aim to undermine public confidence in India’s electoral system both domestically and internationally. If Congress were truly concerned about the integrity of the ECI, they would either boycott elections or present solid evidence, rather than perpetuate discredited narratives pushed by left-wing propagandists. It seems Rahul Gandhi wants to send a message to foreign powers, suggesting that because Congress and its allies failed to win in a single state or challenge the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha, India’s democratic system is crumbling and foreign intervention is necessary, echoing the sentiment once expressed by Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar: “Unhe hataiye humein laiye” (remove them, bring us).

(This Article was originally published by OpIndia)