Poll rigging charge: Rahul Gandhi accuses EC of 'deleting evidence' instead of giving answers

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stepped up his allegations of "match-fixing" in Maharashtra Assembly polls and accused the Election Commission of “deleting evidence” instead of giving answers to the questions he had raised.

Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been demanding voter lists, poll data and video footage from the commission, alleging irregularities in the assembly elections.

His fresh attack on the EC came after the poll body instructed its officers to destroy CCTV, webcasting and video footage of the elections after 45 days.

"Voter list? Will not give machine-readable format. CCTV footage? Hidden by changing the law. Election photos and videos? Now they will be deleted in 45 days, not 1 year. The one who was supposed to provide answers - is the one deleting the evidence," Gandhi wrote on X.

"It is clear that the match is fixed. And a fixed election is poison for democracy," he said.

The commission has instructed state poll officers to destroy CCTV, webcasting and video footage of the polling process after 45 days if the results are not challenged in courts within that period.

EC said it feared that the electronic data could be used to create "malicious narratives".

The poll officials have been recording various stages of the election process through photography, videography, CCTV, and webcasting. The commission uses this data as an internal management tool, though the electoral laws do not mandate such recordings.

"However, the recent misuse of this content by non-contestants for spreading misinformation and malicious narratives on social media by selective and out-of-context use of such content, which will not lead to any legal outcome, has prompted a review," the commission said in its letter to state chief electoral officers on May 30.

Earlier this month, Gandhi, in an article written for the Indian Express, alleged that the election rigging took place in five steps: rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission, add fake voters to the roll, inflate voter turnout, target the bogus voting exactly where BJP needs to win, and hide the evidence.

Later, in a post on X, the Congress leader dared the Commission to publish consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for the most recent elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas of all states, including Maharashtra, and release all post-5pm CCTV footage from Maharashtra polling booths.