Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) Maharashtra in-charge, Ramesh Chennithala, on Saturday (June 7, 2025) said party MP Rahul Gandhi had exposed that the mandate of the “people in Maharashtra was hijacked” — not by the will of the people but by a systematic assault on democratic institutions.

“This was not a coincidence. It was a calculated and premeditated operation to distort the electoral mandate. Merely after six months [of the Lok Sabha election], the same Maha Vikas Aghadi [grouping of the Congress and others], which was poised to win over 170 seats in the Assembly election, was reduced to just 50. Is it believable? Even the most loyal BJP supporter would hesitate to make such a claim,” said Mr. Chennithala.

Yet again, a debate has begun around the State Assembly election results, with the Congress questioning the last-minute increase in voters, while the BJP asking the Congress to accept defeat.

“In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Maharashtra had 89.8 million registered voters. By the 2024 Lok Sabha election, this number rose naturally to 92.9 million — a five-year increase of 3.1 million. In just five months, during the 2024 Assembly election, the voter count jumped to 97 million — a sudden spike of 4.1 million in less than half a year. Even the official estimate of the adult population in Maharashtra stands at 95.4 million,” Mr. Chennithala said, noting that the figures defied logic.

He questioned the “addition of 7.6 million votes”, pointing out that the initial turnout on the polling day was 58.22%, which jumped to 66.05% overnight.