EC rejects Rahul's claims of voting spike in Maharashtra

NEW DELHI: Rebutting Rahul Gandhi's allegation of an inexplicable spike in voter turnout between 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm during the 2024 assembly elections in Maharashtra, sources in Election Commission on Tuesday said there was "nothing unusual" about the casting of 65 lakh votes in two hours, as alleged; rather, an average of 58 lakh electors had voted each hour from 7 am to 6 pm.

"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 ," said a senior EC functionary.

The functionary noted that Congress's own polling agents had watched the conduct of elections at every booth and did not once raise any substantiated allegation regarding abnormal voting, either at the time of scrutiny before the returning officers or before the election observers the next day. EC officials said any misinformation being spread, by anyone, is "not only a sign of disrespect towards law, but also brings disrepute to the thousands of representatives appointed by their own political party and demotivates lakhs of election staff.