New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, launched a pointed criticism of the Election Commission of India, accusing the ECI of undermining public confidence in democracy by 'facilitating' vote theft -- a claim that the Congress party has persistently made for some time in an effort to discredit the poll panel. Rahul Gandhi’s stern criticism of the polling body came moments after the counting of votes began for 29 civic body elections in Maharashtra, including the BMC, seeking to embolden the opposition’s claims of voter fraud in the municipal elections. A day ago, the Thackeray cousins also claimed election fraud, questioning the authenticity of indelible ink used to mark voters in the civic polls.

The BJP was quick to counter Gandhi’s charge, claiming that this was an attempt to deflect attention from the impending defeat and instead make the ECI a scapegoat. The Congress MP took to X this morning and wrote, “Election Commission gaslighting citizens is how trust has collapsed in our democracy. Vote Chori is an anti-national act.” The BJP leaders, mounting a strong defence of the polling procedure, said that the opposition was staring at an imminent defeat in the BMC as well as other civic bodies of Maharashtra and hence was resorting to such tactics.

Labelling Rahul Gandhi-led opposition as "bahana brigade", Shehzad Poonawala said, “Accepting defeat before counting ends? Rahul is back to doing what he does best - Discredit , distort & disinform.” He also stated that though the ink controversy deserved a probe, not even a single incident of fraud was reported in Thursday's polling. Another BJP spokesperson claimed that the ‘parivarvadi’ party was trying to evade scrutiny and, hence, fabricating false narratives.

“Every season the "Parivarvadi" to escape scrutiny come up with one or other allegation which turns out damp squid in Court of law & court of public opinion,” said Pradeep Bhandari in a post on X. Notably, a major controversy erupted on Thursday over multiple claims that indelible ink applied to voters after polling was getting erased easily, thus opening the space for compromising the elections. Opposition leaders, including local Congress leaders, claimed that at multiple booths, markers and not ink were being used to mark voters, and these marks were getting wiped off with sanitiser.

As the issue snowballed into a bigger row, the State Election Commission, though initially hesitant, ordered a probe into the matter and told the media that a detailed enquiry would be conducted to ascertain the viral video claims and also to check whether they were genuine or mischievous. It also told the media that there was no deviation from standard practice, and the same ink was being used in the BMC elections.