Election Commission Rebuts Rahul Gandhi’s Allegations, Says He Ignored Official Invitation
Image source: IANS
New Delhi, Aug 2 (TheTrendingPeople.com):
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued a strong rebuttal to Rahul Gandhi’s repeated claims of irregularities in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, stating that the Congress leader failed to respond to an official invitation for dialogue issued nearly two months ago.
The Commission, in a letter dated June 12, 2025, invited Gandhi for an interaction regarding the issues he had raised in a newspaper opinion piece. According to EC officials, no response has been received from the Leader of the Opposition to date.
Allegations Called “Baseless” by EC Officials
The ECI, in its latest response, emphasized that similar concerns had already been raised by the Indian National Congress (INC) after the elections and were addressed in a comprehensive reply on December 24, 2024, which remains publicly available on the Commission’s official website.
On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi again launched an attack on the ECI, claiming it was no longer acting independently and went as far as to describe the institution as “dead.”
EC sources dismissed the allegations as “completely baseless”, stressing that such statements have the potential to undermine public trust in India’s constitutionally mandated electoral authority.
“The Commission operates in a completely transparent manner. All its actions are open to scrutiny and governed strictly by the law,” a senior ECI official told TheTrendingPeople.com.
EVMs Declared Tamper-Proof After Verification
In a key development, the Election Commission also reaffirmed the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), following a detailed Checking and Verification (C&V) exercise initiated in Maharashtra at the request of 10 candidates who contested the 2024 Legislative Assembly polls.
The verification process involved:
- 48 Ballot Units (BUs)
- 31 Control Units (CUs)
- 31 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs)
Officials confirmed that no mismatches were found between the results generated by EVMs and the physical VVPAT slips, establishing that the machines functioned accurately and securely.
Political Tensions Escalate
The ongoing exchange marks a new low in the increasingly strained relationship between the Congress party and the ECI. Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly accused the Commission of acting under political pressure, especially in the wake of Congress’s poor showing in the Maharashtra polls.
However, the ECI’s responses and technical verification reports are being interpreted as a firm institutional pushback to what it views as unsubstantiated political rhetoric.
Invitation for Dialogue Still Open
The Commission reiterated that it remains open to dialogue and encourages constructive engagement with political stakeholders. Officials say the invitation extended to Rahul Gandhi on June 12 is still valid and that the Commission welcomes any substantive discussion based on facts and data.