NEW DELHI — Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, launched a pointed criticism of the Election Commission of India, accusing the ECI of undermining public confidence in democracy by ‘facilitating’ vote theft.
Rahul Gandhi’s stern criticism of the polling body came moments after the counting of votes began for 29 civic body elections in Maharashtra, including the BMC. A day ago, the Thackeray cousins also claimed election fraud, questioning the authenticity of indelible ink used to mark voters in the civic polls.
The Congress MP took to X this morning and wrote, “Election Commission gaslighting citizens is how trust has collapsed in our democracy. Vote Chori is an anti-national act.”
The BJP leaders, mounting a strong defence of the polling procedure, said that the opposition was staring at an imminent defeat in the BMC as well as other civic bodies of Maharashtra and hence was resorting to such tactics.
A major controversy erupted on Thursday over multiple claims that indelible ink applied to voters after polling was getting erased easily, thus opening the space for compromising the elections.
Opposition leaders, including local Congress leaders, claimed that at multiple booths, markers and not ink were being used to mark voters, and these marks were getting wiped off with sanitiser.
As the issue snowballed into a bigger row, the State Election Commission, though initially hesitant, ordered a probe into the matter and told the media that a detailed enquiry would be conducted to ascertain the viral video claims and also to check whether they were genuine or mischievous.
It also told the media that there was no deviation from standard practice, and the same ink was being used in the BMC elections. — With inputs from IANS
