Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, Jun 8: Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday lashed out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of ‘match-fixing’ in the 2024 state assembly elections, stating that ‘the one whom the public rejects, rejects the mandate.’
Fadnavis was responding to an opinion piece Gandhi wrote in The Indian Express, where the Congress MP alleged large-scale electoral rigging and claimed the Maharashtra elections were ‘a blueprint for rigging democracy.’ Gandhi accused the ruling BJP alliance of manipulating electoral processes through a five-step method that included rigging the election commission panel and inflating voter rolls.
Taking to a Marathi daily, Fadnavis countered sharply, saying, “If you cannot convince the people, then confuse them – this is Rahul Gandhi’s policy.” He added that the Congress had been decisively rejected by voters, and instead of introspecting, the party was now tarnishing the image of Indian democracy by targeting Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
“Raising doubts on EVMs has become a habit for the opposition in every Maharashtra election. All petitions against EVMs have been dismissed by the Supreme Court,” he reminded, questioning Gandhi’s double standards: “Are EVMs correct only when Congress wins?”
He described Gandhi as a leader who “cannot accept failure” and asserted that the public is closely watching. “Excuses will not work now. Accountability will be fixed,” he said.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance—comprising Congress, Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction, and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena—won just 46 out of 288 seats in the November 2024 elections. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance stormed to victory with 235 seats, with the BJP alone bagging a record 132.
In his article, Gandhi claimed “industrial-scale rigging” took place and laid out what he called a step-by-step guide to “stealing an election,” echoing that “match-fixed elections are poison for any democracy.”
The Election Commission, in response, termed Gandhi’s accusations “completely absurd” and re-released a detailed rebuttal it had published earlier in April this year.
With tempers flaring and political battle lines hardening, Maharashtra remains a flashpoint in the growing national debate on electoral transparency and institutional trust.