'ECI is compromised': Rahul; BJP hits back

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged at an event in the US that the Election Commission of India is "compromised" and that "there is something wrong with the system", drawing a strong reaction from the ruling BJP, which accused the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha of insulting Indian institutions and democracy on foreign soil.

- Abhishek Angad

NEW DELHI:

Gandhi, who was addressing the Indian diaspora at an event in Boston on Sunday, a day after his arrival in the US, cited voter turnout figures in the Maharashtra assembly elections to target the poll panel. The former Congress president said that according to ECI data, more people voted in the Maharashtra assembly elections last November than there were adults in the state.

"The Election Commission gave us a voting figure for 5.30 pm, and between 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm, 65 lakh (6.5 million) voters voted. This is impossible to happen. For a voter to vote, it takes approximately three minutes, and if you do the math, it would mean that there were lines of voters till 2 am, but this did not happen," he said.