In a memorandum submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Congress party has raised serious concerns over discrepancies in the voter rolls leading up to the elections, with an estimated 47 lakh voters said to have been added, alongside the deletion of a substantial number of voters, and a rapid increase in voter turnout towards the end of polling during the recently held Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The memorandum was submitted on November 29 by Congress leaders, including Nana Patole, Ramesh Chennithala, and Mukul Wasnik, addressing issues regarding the alleged arbitrary deletion and addition of voters, as well as significant fluctuations in voter turnout figures.
In their complaint to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and other election commissioners, the Congress leaders highlighted what they saw as troubling actions in the lead-up to the elections. They claimed that a substantial number of voters were deleted from the electoral rolls in a manner that appeared arbitrary, while approximately 10,000 new voters were added in each constituency.
According to the memorandum, this resulted in an extraordinary increase in the number of voters—an estimated 47 lakh voters were added to the rolls between July and November 2024, which they believe was a manipulation of the electoral process following the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress leaders specifically pointed to the 50 assembly constituencies where the increase in the voter base averaged 50,000 voters, noting that in 47 of these constituencies, candidates from the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance emerged victorious. The party had already flagged these concerns with the ECI in October, but they alleged that the Commission took no meaningful action.
The party also raised alarms about the voter turnout figures reported on polling day. According to the Congress, the figures showed a sharp increase in voter turnout between 5:00 pm and 11:30 pm, which they found suspicious. Initially, the reported turnout at 5:00 pm was 58.22%, but by 11:30 pm, it had risen to 65.02%. Later, the turnout was updated further to 66.05%, hours before the vote count began.
Congress leaders expressed disbelief at the drastic rise in voter participation, suggesting that it was highly improbable for over 70 lakh voters to have cast their votes in the final hour of polling. They noted that even if each voter took two minutes to cast their vote, it would be physically impossible to process such a large number of voters within such a short time frame, and still release the final data by 11:30 pm.
The allegations were further reinforced by reports from a voter registration officer, who filed an FIR regarding fake voter registrations in the Tuljapur assembly constituency. Congress officials also referenced former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, who had previously stated that voter turnout is typically recorded and updated in real-time, making the unexplained surge in figures hard to justify.
In light of these concerns, Congress has requested an in-person hearing with the ECI and has asked for a thorough explanation of the discrepancies in the electoral process, both before and after the election.