New Delhi, April 22 -- Sources in the Election Commission on Tuesday issued a strong rebuttal of the Congress party's charge that the voter list in the Maharashtra Assembly polls was manipulated.

According to EC sources, during the Assembly Elections in Maharashtra, 6,40,87,588 electors, who arrived at the polling station between 7 am and 6 pm, cast their votes. About 58 lakh votes were polled per hour on average. Going by these average trends, nearly 116 Lakh voters could have voted in the last two hours. Therefore, casting of 65 lakhs votes by electors in two hours is much below the average hourly voting trends.

Sources further stated that in every polling booth, voting proceeded in the presence of polling agents formally appointed by...