EC has become govt’s puppet: Kharge

The Election Commission has become a “puppet” in the hands of the government, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged on Wednesday and claimed that his party is raising the issue of “irregularities” in elections but the poll watchdog is not ready to listen.
Kharge said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has stated the facts, citing figures, to lay bare the “irregularities” in the 2024 Maharashtra polls and others have also done so, but the Election Commission is not ready to accept that.
“The EC has become a puppet in the hands of the government…like we have puppets that are made to do things to entertain. You have a puppet and you (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) claim that you are winning elections. You are not winning elections your machine is winning,” Kharge said, addressing a press conference at the Congress’ Indira Bhawan headquarters.
“You let it go where you want to and get a hold where you want to,” he said, referring to elections in various states.
“We won election in Maharashtra and in the same place five months later there is massive difference in number of voters. In five years, voters’ list goes up by 2-3 per cent. But how come in five months, there is an increase of 8 per cent,” the Congress president said.
“I have fought 13 elections and also been part of many elections, but I have not seen such a thing,” he said.
Kharge said the Congress has been constantly raising the issue of poll irregularities but the Election Commission is not ready to listen to anything because the government has “control everywhere”.
“The RSS people are placed everywhere and there is no place for others. The Election Commission is not listening to us and not giving us the voters’ list. You are controlling that also,” the Congress chief said.
In many places where there were poll irregularities, many people complained but the Election Commission did not rectify it, he alleged.
“You do what Modi says and that is why we say — Thank you very much for whatever work you are doing for Modi,” he said in a swipe at the poll watchdog.
Kharge’s remarks come a day after Gandhi reiterated his claims of alleged irregularities in the Maharashtra assembly polls. Gandhi said that there weren’t isolated glitches but “vote theft” and demanded the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls as well as CCTV footage.
The Congress on Wednesday urged the Election Commission to provide machine-readable digital copy of the Maharashtra voter lists along with video footage of polling day of the state and Haryana within a week.
The demand came days after the Election Commission’s offer to Gandhi to meet and discuss issues about the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections raised by him.
The Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) of the Congress, in a letter to the Commission, said the party leadership will be happy to meet with the EC soon after they receive them, where they can even present the findings of their analysis.
“We request you to provide us the machine-readable, digital copy of the Maharashtra voter lists and video footage of polling day of Maharashtra and Haryana within a week from the date of this letter. This has been a long-standing request which should be easy to comply for the EC,” the EAGLE group said in a statement.