The Reporters’ Collective Report Alleges BJP Manipulated Elections in 85 Maharashtra Assembly Constituencies in 2024

Mumbai: A new report has emerged supporting opposition parties’ allegations of electoral manipulation in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections. The report alleges that the BJP rigged the elections in 85 constituencies. The online media outlet The Reporters’ Collective published the findings.

The Maharashtra Assembly elections were held on November 20, 2024, and the results were declared on November 23. On February 7, 2025, opposition parties had jointly raised allegations of electoral manipulation. The Election Commission rejected all these allegations. However, an investigation by The Reporters’ Collective found discrepancies between the votes recorded in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the number of voters recorded at polling booths.

The investigation examined election data from 467 Assembly constituencies and 63 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir in 2024. According to the report, the Election Commission did not even have the records required to verify whether manipulation had taken place in 51 parliamentary constituencies.

In 19 of these constituencies, the number of voters who turned up at polling booths was unavailable. In several places, the number of voters was recorded as zero. The Election Commission declared the results without examining any of these records, the report said. The BJP or its NDA allies won in 10 such constituencies.

The findings of The Reporters’ Collective have come into focus at a time when allegations of electoral fraud involving Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar are being widely debated in the country. The report has been described as the latest evidence of alleged electoral manipulation by the BJP under the protection of the Union government.