Cong alleges Maharashtra govt elected illegitimately, cites voter list data

Opposition Congress on Saturday alleged that the BJP-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra was "not legitimately elected" and claimed there was a suspicious addition of a large number of voters and manipulation of votes during the November 2024 assembly polls.

Congress' data analytics department chairperson Praveen Chakravarty and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithiviraj Chavan made the allegations in a press conference.

"The government in Maharashtra is not legitimately elected through a fair electoral process. We say this with full responsibility as India's oldest political party and as the only political party that fought for India's freedom and helped establish India as a constitutional republic," Chakaravarty said. There has been significant manipulation of the voter results in the recently-held state assembly elections in Maharashtra, he said.

"Forty-eight lakh new voters were added in the electoral rolls in the assembly elections after the Lok Sabha polls, while only 32 lakh voters had been added before the 2019 assembly polls," he said. "Somehow all these voters seem to have magically voted for one alliance which is the Mahayuti. Does this sound logical...Is this a miraculous coincidence? How does this explain? Is this not strange?" Chakravarty asked. As compared to the Lok Sabha elections, the Mahayuti received 72 lakh more votes in the assembly polls, he claimed.

Only 24 lakh voters that voted for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) shifted away. But the Mahayuti got 72 lakh more votes, he claimed.

The MVA got 30 of the 48 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, while in the Vidhan Sabha polls held in November, the ruling Mahayuti won 230 of the 288, decisively defeating the opposition MVA. The BJP won 132 seats, the Shiv Sena 57 and the NCP got 41 seats.