Rahul Gandhi skirts poll panel's meeting invite

New Delhi: The Congress has signalled that party leader Rahul Gandhi is in no hurry to accept the Election Commission brass' invitation to him to have a discussion on the merit of his often repeated allegation of irregularity in the conduct of Maharashtra and Haryana elections. After party president Mallikarjun Kharge chose to be non-committal on Gandhi accepting the EC invite, the Congress leadership once again wrote to the poll body, reiterating its demand for a copy of the electoral roll and CCTV footage of the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

Earlier, Kharge, responding to media queries on the EC's invite to Gandhi, had wondered what the point of such a meeting was, saying past complaints to the poll body about the conduct of elections in some states "remain unaddressed". The EC had invited Gandhi to discuss his charges after the poll body dismissed his allegations on data regarding electoral rolls and voter turnout.

The Congress leadership said it would be "happy to meet the EC" after the poll body meets its demand.

EC Cites SC Ruling to Deny Congress Roll Request
Rejecting the Congress party's demand for a 'machine-readable' digital copy of the electoral roll as "untenable", the Election Commission is learnt to have reminded the party that a similar plea made in 2019 had been rejected by the SC.