‘Serious Problem’ With Country’s Election System: Rahul On Maharashtra Poll

Rahul Gandhi alleged that there is a "serious problem" with the country's election system and that EC needs to ensure there is transparency in polls.

New Delhi:Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that there is a "serious problem" with the country's election system and that the Election Commission needs to ensure there is transparency in polls. Maintaining that "something wrong" has taken place in Maharashtra assembly elections, he said the Congress and the opposition have been asking for voter lists of Maharashtra and Haryana elections, which the EC is refusing to provide.

He demanded that the EC come clean on the issue. Gandhi, while addressing Congress leaders at the inauguration of the new party headquarters, alleged there has been an increase of nearly one crore voters between Maharashtra Lok Sabha and assembly elections but the Election Commission is neither answering the queries raised by the opposition nor the lists of voters.

"I want to ask you why would the Election Commission refuse to give us voters' lists of the Maharashtra election. What purpose is served by not giving us and the rest of the opposition the voter lists of the Maharashtra Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha election? Why will it damage the EC? Why are they not giving us the list?

"It is the duty of the EC to ensure transparency in elections. If there is an increase of one crore in (the number of) voters in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha in Maharashtra, it is the duty and sacred responsibility of the Election Commission to show us exactly why this has happened. There is a serious problem with our election system," Gandhi said. Gandhi said they might find it "very difficult" to accept this because they were the people who have put in place the election system.

"But we have to keep it in mind there is a problem. And it is the duty of the Election Commission to come clean and give us the data of the Maharashtra and Haryana elections," he noted. The former Congress president said he had in the last CWC meeting clearly stated that "something wrong" has happened in Maharashtra elections.

"I said clearly that we are not comfortable with the way the Election Commission is holding elections. I said very clearly that the large number of new voters that have suddenly appeared, almost a crore new voters that have suddenly appeared between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha is problematic," Gandhi said.

"I had put a challenge clearly in front of the Election Commission. I said clearly to the Election Commission through that meeting that it is your duty to make the voter list transparent to the opposition," the former Congress president said.

Gandhi said they wanted to see the names of voters who voted in Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra and the names and addresses of voters in Vidhan Sabha and had the EC provided that data, the problem would have been solved. But the EC has refused to give us that information, he noted He also alleged that investigative agencies, which are supposed to probe crimes, are being used against the opposition and all the opposition leaders.

Gandhi wondered whether institutions in the country were working, alleging that most of the institutions were "captured" by the RSS and the BJP.