Mumbai, Jun 7 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Saturday claimed that Maharashtra’s democracy was “butchered” in the 2024 assembly polls.

He was referring to an article in the Indian Express by Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, who alleged that the Maharashtra polls were a “blueprint for rigging democracy”. In the article, Gandhi said this poll “match-fixing” would next happen in the Bihar elections and “anywhere the BJP is losing”.

“With irrefutable facts and unflinching clarity, Rahul Gandhi has exposed a chilling truth: the mandate of the people in Maharashtra was hijacked – not by the will of the voters, but through manipulation, deceit, and a systematic assault on democratic institutions,” Chennithala claimed in a statement.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge said the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), defied the “Modi wave” in last year’s Lok Sabha elections, with the people of the state standing tall against “propaganda and pressure, delivering a decisive verdict that sent the BJP alliance reeling”.

The MVA had won 30 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections.

“The BJP’s loss in Maharashtra, along with its poor performance in Uttar Pradesh, was pivotal in preventing it from securing an absolute majority at the national level,” said the AICC in-charge.

In the state polls held six months later, the MVA, “which was poised to win over 170 seats, was reduced to just 50”, he said. In the assembly polls, MVA’s tally stood at 46 of 288 seats, while the Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena together bagged 230 seats.

“Is it believable that this staggering turnaround was due to governance or public sentiment? Even the most loyal BJP supporter would hesitate to make such a claim. If Prime Minister Modi himself could not sway Maharashtra (in Lok Sabha polls), are we to believe that Eknath Shinde – whose politics is marred by betrayal and unprincipled opportunism – could command such a wave,” he asked.

“This was not a coincidence. It was a calculated and premeditated operation to distort the electoral mandate. Democracy in Maharashtra was not defeated, it was subverted,” he claimed.

Rahul Gandhi’s “powerful expose” is not merely an article, but a wake-up call, he said.

“The article exposes how Maharashtra, once a proud torchbearer of democratic values, has become a cautionary tale of how institutions can be compromised… how power can be snatched instead of earned, and how silence can become complicity,” he said.

This is no longer about one state or one election, it is about the soul of “our democracy”, he added.

“We urge the Election Commission to break its silence. The people of Maharashtra and India deserve answers. We call upon every citizen to stay vigilant, stay informed, and stay united. For, if we allow such subversion to go unchecked, we may soon lose not just elections, but the very freedoms that define us,” said Chennithala.

Responding to the article by Gandhi, Election Commission sources rejected the claims of rigging in the Maharashtra polls, and said defaming it after receiving an unfavourable verdict from the voters is absolutely absurd. PTI MR NR