<p>Mumbai: Citing a mass scam in the voters list, the Congress on Saturday accused the BJP of benefiting from the discrepancies and slammed the Election Commission of having failed completely to ensure a transparent election in Maharashtra. </p><p>So far, 100 candidates of the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar-headed NCP (SP) have filed election petitions in the Bombay High Court.</p><p>Coinciding with the National Voters' Day on the eve of the Republic Day, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and Praveen Chakravarty, Chairperson of the All India Professionals' Congress, reeled out facts and figures related to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and Vidhan Sabha polls in Maharashtra.</p><p>“The Election Commission, an autonomous body, is responsible for conducting fair and transparent elections in a democratic system, but the Commission has failed in the Maharashtra assembly elections. The BJP alliance has benefited from the huge scam in the voter lists in the assembly elections,” said Chavan.</p>.'Chhaava' should be shown to experts before release, says Maharashtra minister Uday Samant.<p>“In the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections held six months after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, 48 lakh voters have increased. Notably, if the number of voters increased by 32 lakh in the five years from the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, then how did the number of voters increase by 48 lakh in just six months,” said Chakraborty.</p><p>The Congress, which heads the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc sought answers from the Election Commission. </p><p>Chakraborty further said that the Election Commission has claimed that the total number of voters in Maharashtra for the Assembly elections is 9.7 crore, but the adult population above the age of 18 in Maharashtra, as declared by the Health Ministry of the Narendra Modi government, is 9.54 crore. </p><p>“According to this data, how did the number of voters increase by 16 lakh? Many irregularities have been made in the registration of voter lists. In Loni village of Shirdi constituency, 5,000 voters were registered at a single address. When Congress candidate Pratibha Ghogre asked these voters for their identity cards and residence certificates, it was revealed that they were not local residents,” he said.</p><p>“When Congress complained to the Election Commission, there was no response. After the Lok Sabha elections, the names of 20,000 to 25,000 new voters were included in each of the 132 Assembly constituencies. The MahaYuti was leading in 62 of these Assembly constituencies in the Lok Sabha, but it is important to note that the MahaYuti won 112 seats out of these 132 constituencies in the Assembly. The huge increase in the voter list is incomprehensible and suspicious. When the Election Commission was asked for information in this regard, it has not yet provided it,” he said.</p>
<p>Mumbai: Citing a mass scam in the voters list, the Congress on Saturday accused the BJP of benefiting from the discrepancies and slammed the Election Commission of having failed completely to ensure a transparent election in Maharashtra. </p><p>So far, 100 candidates of the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar-headed NCP (SP) have filed election petitions in the Bombay High Court.</p><p>Coinciding with the National Voters' Day on the eve of the Republic Day, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and Praveen Chakravarty, Chairperson of the All India Professionals' Congress, reeled out facts and figures related to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and Vidhan Sabha polls in Maharashtra.</p><p>“The Election Commission, an autonomous body, is responsible for conducting fair and transparent elections in a democratic system, but the Commission has failed in the Maharashtra assembly elections. The BJP alliance has benefited from the huge scam in the voter lists in the assembly elections,” said Chavan.</p>.'Chhaava' should be shown to experts before release, says Maharashtra minister Uday Samant.<p>“In the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections held six months after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, 48 lakh voters have increased. Notably, if the number of voters increased by 32 lakh in the five years from the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, then how did the number of voters increase by 48 lakh in just six months,” said Chakraborty.</p><p>The Congress, which heads the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc sought answers from the Election Commission. </p><p>Chakraborty further said that the Election Commission has claimed that the total number of voters in Maharashtra for the Assembly elections is 9.7 crore, but the adult population above the age of 18 in Maharashtra, as declared by the Health Ministry of the Narendra Modi government, is 9.54 crore. </p><p>“According to this data, how did the number of voters increase by 16 lakh? Many irregularities have been made in the registration of voter lists. In Loni village of Shirdi constituency, 5,000 voters were registered at a single address. When Congress candidate Pratibha Ghogre asked these voters for their identity cards and residence certificates, it was revealed that they were not local residents,” he said.</p><p>“When Congress complained to the Election Commission, there was no response. After the Lok Sabha elections, the names of 20,000 to 25,000 new voters were included in each of the 132 Assembly constituencies. The MahaYuti was leading in 62 of these Assembly constituencies in the Lok Sabha, but it is important to note that the MahaYuti won 112 seats out of these 132 constituencies in the Assembly. The huge increase in the voter list is incomprehensible and suspicious. When the Election Commission was asked for information in this regard, it has not yet provided it,” he said.</p>