Days after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi stoked a controversy over his remarks on voter turnout figures in Maharashtra Assembly polls, sources in the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday rejected his claims and called it completely absurd.

Notably, Gandhi, who is currently visiting the United States, during a talk at Brown University in Boston, accused the poll panel of compromising its impartiality.

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Referring to the Leader of Opposition’s remarks, sources categorically said all elections are held as per law, adding the scale and accuracy with which elections are held in India are widely acclaimed across the world.

Sources said the entire nation is aware that each election process including the preparation of electoral rolls, polling and counting etc are all held by Government staff and that too in the presence of authorised representatives formally appointed by political parties/ candidates from polling station upto constituency level.

“Any misinformation being spread, by anyone, is not only a sign of disrespect towards law, but also brings disrepute to the thousands of representatives appointed by their own political party and demotivates lakhs of election staff who work untiringly and transparently during elections,” they said.

Sources asserted after any unfavourable verdict by the voters, trying to defame the Election Commission by saying that it is compromised, is completely absurd.

Citing Maharashtra Assembly elections, sources said, “During Assembly elections in Maharashtra 6,40,87,588 electors, who reached the polling station from 7 am to 6 pm, voted. About 58 lakh votes were polled per hour on an average. Going by these average trends, nearly 116 Lakh voters could have voted in the last two hours. Therefore, casting 65 lakhs votes by electors in two hours is much below the average hourly voting trends.”

“Further, in every polling booth, the voting progressed in front of the polling agents formally appointed by candidates/political parties. INC’s nominated candidates or their authorized agents have not raised any substantiated allegations with regards to any kind of abnormal voting at the time of scrutiny before the Returning Officer (RO) and the Election Observers on the next day,” sources said.

Sources added electoral rolls in India including Maharashtra are prepared as per the Representation of People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. As per law, either just before the elections and/or once every year, Special Summary Revision of the Electoral Rolls is conducted and a final copy of the Electoral Rolls is handed over to all the National/State political parties, including Congress.