Rahul's remarks on Maharashtra polls completely absurd: EC sources

New Delhi: With top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi calling the poll body “compromised” during his visit to the United States triggering a war of words, the Election Commission officials on Tuesday said the attempt to defame it after any unfavourable verdict is “completely absurd”.

“Unsubstantiated” allegations being raised on electoral rolls for Maharashtra elections was an “affront to the rule of law”, as Congress had engaged 27,009 Booth Level Agents for voters’ list revision exercise, which saw only 89 first appeals and just one second appeal, officials said.

Any misinformation being spread, by anyone, is “not only a sign of disrespect towards Law, but also brings disrepute” to the thousands of representatives appointed by their own party and “demotivates” lakhs of election staff who work untiringly and transparently during elections, they said.

The remarks came after Rahul in Boston claimed that the EC is “compromised”, as he attacked the poll panel citing alleged discrepancies in turnout figures in the Maharashtra election. In simple terms, he alleged, more people voted in the Maharashtra assembly elections than there were adults in the state.

Elections in the country are held as per law and the scale and accuracy with which elections are held in India are widely acclaimed across the world, officials said.

They said the entire nation is aware that each election process, including the preparation of electoral rolls, polling and counting, are all held by government staff and that too in the presence of authorised representatives formally appointed by parties or candidates from polling stations up to constituency level.

“After any unfavourable verdict by the voters, trying to defame the Election Commission by saying that it is compromised, is completely absurd,” a senior official said.

Referring to Rahul's allegation that 65 lakh voters exercised their franchise between 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM, which he claimed was “physically impossible to happen”, officials said 6.4 crore who reached the polling stations voted and around 58 lakh votes were polled per hour on an average.

Going by these average trends, they said, nearly 1.16 crore voters could have voted in the last two hours and therefore, casting 65 lakhs votes in two hours is below the average hourly voting trends.

The officials went on to say that Congress candidates or their agents did not raise any “substantiated” allegations on any kind of “abnormal” voting at the time of scrutiny before the Returning Officer and the Election Observers on the next day.

They also said after the finalisation of electoral rolls during Maharashtra elections, only 89 appeals were filed against the total number of 9.77 crore voters before District Magistrate (first appellate authority) and only one appeal before Chief Electoral Authority (second appellate authority).

They said it is "amply clear that there was no grievance" of Congress or any other parties before the Maharashtra polls.