Rahul Gandhi Rejecting People’s Mandate is ‘Insulting’: Devendra Fadnavis on 2024 Assembly Polls

Rahul Gandhi Rejecting People’s Mandate is ‘Insulting’: Maharashtra chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said on Sunday that Rahul Gandhi is "insulting" the public will express against him in the 2024 Maharashtra state assembly elections. Instead of doing some soul-searching about their loss, the Congress party are denying the public their mandate.

Fadnavis wrote this in his articles published in the Indian Express and Marathi daily Loksatta. According to Fadnavis, the Congress leader is preparing excuses already for losing in all future elections, including Bihar.

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The Congress leader, on Saturday in an article in several newspapers and also in posts on X, called the 2024 Maharashtra state assembly elections a "blueprint for rigging democracy" and indicated that this "match-fixing" would take place in the future elections in Bihar, next.

As he recounted irregularities on X, Gandhi sequentially stated what the alleged irregularities were -- adding bogus voters, inflating turnout, allowing bogus voting, and finally, hiding this evidence.

चुनाव की चोरी का पूरा खेल!

2024 का महाराष्ट्र विधानसभा चुनाव लोकतंत्र में धांधली का ब्लूप्रिंट था।

अपने आर्टिकल में मैंने विस्तार से बताया है कि कैसे यह साज़िश step by step रची गई:

Step 1: चुनाव आयोग की नियुक्ति करने वाले पैनल पर कब्ज़ा

Step 2: वोटर लिस्ट में फर्ज़ी मतदाता… pic.twitter.com/S4XV5W3DpU

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 7, 2025

The Mahayuti convincingly won the 2024 Maharashtra elections against the Maha Vikas Aghadi, and the embarrassment of loss went to Gandhi's head.

“This will only push the Congress party further into a ditch. He needs to introspect on why his own party's MLAs make statements challenging anyone to get an appointment with him within a day. He must be mindful of which direction he is taking the country and what poison he is spreading by constantly raising doubts about the democratic process and constitutional institutions,” Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis claimed that Gandhi and his supporters were embarrassed by their failure in Maharashtra. “But if you continue to insult the mandate of Maharashtra's farmers, Ladki Bahin (beloved sisters), common people, and all its citizens in this manner, the people of Maharashtra will never forgive you,” he added.

Fadnavis further said, “As far as the Maharashtra election is concerned, it was not fundamentally a contest between the Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi. There was another factor: The Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan. What was this 'todo' (break) campaign, established under the name of 'jodo' (unite), doing?”

He said the campaign was fostering misconceptions about the country’s constitutional institutions, inciting people against the country, including the courts, the Election Administration.

Fadnavis also highlighted the appointment process of the Chief Election Commissioner, stating, “From 1950 until a new law was enacted, the (previous) Congress governments directly appointed the Chief Election Commissioner.”

“Out of 26 commissioners to date, 25 were directly appointed by the central government. For the first time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi established a committee that includes the leader of the opposition or the leader of the largest political party (in the opposition),” he pointed out.

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Fadnavis counters Rahul Gandhi’s ‘bogus voters’ charge with data

Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s objection to the increase of electors in the 2024 Maharashtra polls — he referenced electors as “bogus voters”, Devendra Fadnavis said that the number of young voters is continually increasing.

“Between 2014 and 2019, 63 lakh new voters were added; from 2009 to 2014, 75 lakh new voters were added; and from 2004 to 2009, 1 crore new voters were added. This means that nothing extraordinary happened in 2024,” he said.

Indicating patterns in the vote turnout, Fadnavis stated that, In the 2004 assembly elections, the vote turnout was 5% higher than the Lok Sabha poll; in 2009, the turnout was 4% higher; in 2014, the turnout was 3% higher; in 2019, the turnout was 1% higher; and in 2024, the turnout was back to 4% higher. “So again, nothing new happened in 2024,” the CM said.

He made a point to respond to the allegations of the sudden spike in voter turnout, Fadnavis said, “The claim that the voting percentage suddenly increased is a huge joke. Is Rahul Gandhi unaware that 5 pm to 6 pm is also a polling hour, and everyone present in the queue at the booth by 6 pm is allowed to cast their vote?”

He also highlighted that in the second phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the reported voting percentage at 5 p.m. was 60.96% and finalised at 66.71% the following morning, an increase of 5.75%. "But are you going to hide that fact because you won that election?" Fadnavis questioned.

He noted that the past, the final voting figures were declared only late at night, but now, the 5 p.m. figure was declared first, and the following day the final figure was released, he said.

The chief minister also ridiculed the argument that the NDA have also won in places where voter turnout had increased had risen again at the last minute: "even more ridiculous."

"Rahul Gandhi gave the example of Kamthi (assembly seat in Maharashtra). But I will provide the examples which he did not. In Madha, there was an 18 per cent increase, where the Sharad Pawar group's candidate won. In Wani, a 13 per cent increase, where the Uddhav Thackeray group's candidate won. In Shrirampur, a 12 per cent increase, where the Congress won," he said.

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