‘Maharashtra Pattern…’: Sanjay Raut Alleges ‘Voter List Fraud’ After BJP Clinches Delhi

Last Updated:February 08, 2025, 17:01 IST

While speaking to the reporters over the Delhi Assembly Polls results, Raut took a pot shot at Election Commission of India (ECI) saying that the poll body had been turning a blind eye to serious concerns.

As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched the bastion of national capital of Delhi from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut alleged that a “Maharashtra pattern” of voter list fraud has been repeated in Delhi.

While speaking to the reporters over the Delhi Assembly Polls results, Raut took a pot shot at Election Commission of India (ECI) saying that the poll body had been turning a blind eye to serious concerns.

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“We held a press conference in Delhi yesterday on the Election Commission and government’s attitude towards elections… how fraud in voters’ list is taking place, and this Maharashtra pattern is new, and I also said that the same pattern has been implemented in Delhi. EC was sitting with its eyes closed,” Raut said as quoted by news agency PTI.

“The 39 lakh votes that have increased in Maharashtra in five months will now shift to Bihar, some will go to Delhi… You think people are voting for BJP, nobody wants to vote for BJP, this is forced voting,” he added.

He further suggested that a Congress-AAP alliance (who are allies in the opposition’s INDIA bloc) could have changed the outcome. He stated that both parties aimed to keep the BJP out of power but failed to unite, which might have secured the BJP’s defeat.

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“The early trends show a sharp competition. Had Congress and AAP been together, the results may have been different. The political opponent of AAP and Congress is BJP. Both of them fought to keep BJP from coming to power, but they fought separately. If they had been together then BJP’s defeat would have been confirmed in the first hour (of counting),” he emphasised.

Raut has been critical of the poll body after in the recently held Maharashtra elections, Shiv Sena (UBT) in an alliance with the Congress and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), won only 20 seats in the 288-member assembly.

Rahul Gandhi Alleges Voter Fraud in Maharashtra

Earlier on Friday, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi raised concerns over the surge in new voters, particularly between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra, highlighting that 39 lakh new voters were added in just five months after the Lok Sabha polls.

Addressing a press conference at the Constitution Club in Delhi alongside Maha Vikas Aghadi partners Sanjay Raut and Supriya Sule, Rahul Gandhi also questioned discrepancies in voter registration figures, claiming that the number of registered voters exceeded Maharashtra’s total adult population.

“We want to bring to the notice of the people of India some information that we have found regarding the Maharashtra elections. We have studied in detail the voter lists, the voting pattern and we have a team working on this for some time. There are many irregularities that we have found,” Gandhi said.

Delhi Election Results 2025

BJP delivered a resounding defeat to the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections on Saturday. It is is poised to form a government in Delhi for the first time since 1998, with the latest Election Commission trends showing the saffron party ahead in 48 of the 70 assembly seats and AAP in 22.

The biggest blows to the AAP came as party supremo Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia lost from their seats – New Delhi and Jangpura – respectively, to BJP’s Parvesh Singh Sahib and Tarvinder Singh Marwah.

Congress, which had ruled the national capital for 15 years under Sheila Dikshit, was nowhere close to the contest.