Rigging of polls claim: Congress to launch 'voter awareness' processions in Maharashtra

Congress president alleges BJP planning "vote fraud pattern" for Bihar elections, organizing torchlight processions to raise awareness.

The Congress will organise torchlight processions on June 12 in Maharashtra to draw people's attention to the "vote theft pattern" of the 2024 polls, which it claimed indicates the credibility of the Election Commission is at stake.

Alleging that BJP leaders are responding to queries directed at the EC, state Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal on Saturday (June 7, 2025) wondered whether a similar "vote fraud pattern" is being planned for the upcoming Bihar elections.

"The credibility of the Election Commission is at stake, and democracy is under threat. To awaken public awareness, the Congress party will organise torchlight processions across Maharashtra on June 12," Mr. Sapkal told a press conference.

His remarks come after opposition leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections were a "blueprint for rigging democracy". He alleged in an article in the Indian Express that this poll "match-fixing" would next happen in the Bihar elections and "anywhere the BJP is losing".

Mr. Sapkal alleged that no investigation was initiated despite Congress raising serious concerns over suspicious spikes in voter turnout.

"Rahul Gandhi has persistently demanded a probe both inside and outside Parliament, and his latest article published in a leading national daily has triggered a political earthquake, reigniting demands for an investigation into alleged election fixing," he said.

Sapkal claimed Gandhi had raised the issue with concrete data, but in his one-and-a-half-hour speech in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not utter a single word. "This is a grave threat to India's democratic framework".