File picture of Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and K.C. Venugopal.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Congress on Wednesday (June 25, 2025) doubled down on its demand for a “digital, machine-readable” copy of Maharashtra Voters Rolls for Lok Sabha and Assembly polls 2024 as well as the CCTV footage of polling day before its senior leadership met the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Opposition party was responding to the invitation for an interaction sent by the poll body to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi following his allegations of “industrial scale” rigging in the Maharashtra Assembly polls.
“We request you to provide us the machine-readable, digital copy of the Maharashtra voter lists and video footage of polling day of Maharashtra and Haryana within a week from the date of this letter,” the Congress’ Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) said in a letter to the ECI.
The letter said that this had been a longstanding request, which should be easy to comply for the ECI, and the Congress party leadership “will be happy to meet with the ECI soon after we have received these. In that meeting, we will even present the findings of our analysis to you”.
‘Intriguing, puzzling’
“It is intriguing and puzzling that except to provide these two voter lists, the Election Commission has engaged in all other sorts of responses, media leaks, and calumny. Why don’t you just give us the final voter lists as requested? Since you have evaded this for so long, we must ask the logical follow-up question — do you or do you not have these voter lists? In this context, not providing video footage of polling day raises further doubts and suspicion,” the letter further said.
The EAGLE is a group set up by the All India Congress Committee to coordinate matters and issues with the Election Commission of India on behalf of the Congress party.
Since December 2024 through several letters, petitions, press conferences by leaders of the INDIA bloc of political parties, articles and speeches on the floor of the Lok Sabha by the Leader of Opposition, the Congress has expressed concerns regarding the “sudden, huge increase” in electors and voters for the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Polls and the upsurge in polling after 5 p.m. on election day.
ECI sources on Tuesday (June 24, 2025) said that on June 12 the poll body had written to Mr. Gandhi for an interaction on the issue, but there was no response.
Published – June 25, 2025 10:45 pm IST
