Sustaining its attack on the Election Commission and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress on Sunday (June 8, 2025) accused the ruling party of responding on behalf of the panel.
“The Congress party, in particular Rahul Gandhi, has been raising questions on the way the (2024 Assembly) election process has been conducted (in Maharashtra) and on the fairness of the electoral rolls. He made a very simple demand – to make these electoral rolls available for various elections in a machine-readable digital format,” he said. These were straightforward and legitimate demands from a political party in a democratic setup, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said.
“Why is J.P. Nadda (BJP president and Union Health Minister) responding on behalf of the Election Commission? Why is the communication of the Election Commission through Mr. Nadda? Be independent, uphold the Constitution, be transparent and don’t speak through Mr. Nadda,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Rigging allegations
His response comes a day after Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, in an article in a national newspaper, alleged that the Maharashtra Assembly election held in November 2024 was “rigged” and that the same could happen in the upcoming Bihar Assembly poll.
In a post on X, Mr. Gandhi shared his article published in a newspaper, explaining the “rigging” in the Maharashtra election. “Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy. My article shows how this happened, step by step,” Mr. Gandhi said on X.
Mr. Nadda, responding to the allegations, called the article a “blueprint for manufacturing fake narratives, owing to his sadness and desperation of losing election after election”. He further said that Mr. Gandhi was making these allegations anticipating a certain defeat in the upcoming Bihar election.
Published – June 08, 2025 10:02 pm IST
