‘Match-fixing will come to Bihar subsequent’: Rahul Gandhi attacks BJP over Maharashtra polls; alleges ‘rigging’ | India News

NEW DELHI: Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday once more accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of partaking in “poll rigging”. Citing final yr’s Maharashtra polls, he cautioned towards comparable “match-fixing” actions by the saffron social gathering within the upcoming Bihar polls.“How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy,” he mentioned as he went on to record out the alleged sequence. He famous that the alleged tampering begins by “rigging the panel for appointing the Election Commission”.

“It’s not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing – the side that cheats might win the game, but damages institutions and destroy public faith in the result. All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers. Because the match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing. Match-fixed elections are a poison for any democracy,” he added.

The opposition events have persistently raised the allegations of ballot rigging in Maharashtra polls, with chief of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge even calling for a going again to poll paper system terming digital voting machines (EVMs) as “fraud” and one thing that put the opposition at “disadvantage”.The Election Commission, has nonetheless, rejected Rahul’s cost of sudden voter’s spike within the Maharashtra polls calling it “nothing unusual”.“During the assembly elections in Maharashtra 6,40,87,588 electors, who reached the polling station from 7 am to 6 pm, voted. About 58 lakh votes were polled per hour, on an average. Going by these average trends, nearly 116 lakh voters could have voted in the last two hours. Therefore, casting of 65 lakh votes by electors in two hours is much below the average hourly voting trends,” a senior EC functionary had mentioned earlier this yr.They additionally identified that Congress’s personal polling brokers have been current at each sales space throughout the elections and didn’t increase any credible complaints about irregular voting — neither throughout the scrutiny by returning officers nor earlier than election observers the next day.