In a scathing op-ed titled “Match-Fixing Maharashtra”, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections were systematically rigged in favour of the BJP. Sharing the piece on X, Rahul posed the provocative question: “How to Steal an Election?”
He accused the BJP of executing a calculated five-step process to manipulate the democratic process, beginning with the restructuring of the Election Commission appointment mechanism. According to Gandhi, the amended 2023 law replaced the Chief Justice of India with a Union Cabinet Minister on the selection panel, thus tilting power toward the Centre. “Why remove a neutral arbiter?” he questioned, suggesting a deliberate attempt to compromise institutional neutrality.
The op-ed highlights that despite the INDIA bloc’s success in the Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections, the Assembly poll results shocked both political observers and the opposition. Rahul Gandhi asserts that the unexpected BJP victory was not a mandate but the outcome of election engineering.
He further warned that similar tactics may be deployed in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. “Because the match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing,” he wrote.
The Congress party is now demanding greater transparency in the electoral process and a rollback of changes that allegedly undermine the independence of democratic institutions.