Rahul Gandhi Alleges ‘Match-Fixing’ in Maharashtra Polls, BJP Dismisses Charge as Disgraceful
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 7th June: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has levelled serious allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its sweeping victory in the November 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, calling it an “industrial-scale rigging” operation and accusing the BJP-led NDA of “match-fixing democracy.”
In a strongly worded op-ed published in The Indian Express, Gandhi alleged that the BJP orchestrated a five-step model to manipulate the electoral process in its favour. “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,” Gandhi wrote in a post that accompanied an excerpt from his article.
How to steal an election?
Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy.
My article shows how this happened, step by step:
Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission
Step 2: Add fake voters to the roll
Step 3: Inflate voter… pic.twitter.com/ntCwtPVXTu— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 7, 2025
In the 2024 Assembly elections, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, which includes the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, secured 235 out of 288 seats. The BJP alone won 132 seats — its highest-ever tally in Maharashtra. In contrast, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP), was reduced to just 50 seats.
Gandhi also criticised the changes made in 2023 to the process of appointing Election Commissioners, under the Election Commissioners Appointment Act. The Act replaced the Chief Justice of India with a Union Minister on the selection committee, a move Gandhi claims compromised the neutrality of the institution. “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,” he wrote.
The Election Commission has refuted all allegations, asserting that it operates independently and in accordance with constitutional provisions.
Responding sharply, BJP spokesperson Tuhin Sinha said, “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.”
Gandhi also flagged a suspicious spike in voter enrolment. He claimed that while the number of registered voters in Maharashtra rose from 8.98 crore in 2019 to 9.29 crore in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it saw a sudden jump of 41 lakh more voters — totalling 9.70 crore — within five months ahead of the state polls.
The BJP dismissed this as standard procedure. “This is normal. A similar process was followed before the Karnataka elections, which the Congress won. Rahul Gandhi has quoted different numbers at different times,” Sinha countered.
The Election Commission attributed the increase to rising youth voter participation and targeted enrolment drives, but Gandhi has rejected the explanation.
