New Delhi, June 25 -- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday stepped up his accusations against the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the alleged "rigging" of Maharasthra Assembly elections, questioning its silence on the matter, even as officials of the poll body said it had written to Gandhi for a meeting to discuss all issues pertaining to polling but there was no response from him. The leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha put out a fresh post on X based on an article by a news website about the lack of mandatory checks in the increase in electors in Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' constituency. "In Maharashtra, CM's own constituency, the voter list grew by 8% in just 5 months. Some booths saw a 20-50% surge. BLOs (booth level officers) reported unknown individuals casting votes. Media uncovered thousands of voters with no verified address. And the EC? Silent-or complicit. These aren't isolated glitches. This is vote theft. The cover-up is the confession. That's why we demand the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage", Gandhi wrote. Earlier on June 7, in an op-ed article, Gandhi had alleged that between the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, there was an increase of 31,000,00 electors. He emphasised that in the five-month period between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections, there was a leap of 41 lakh electors, referring to this spike as fake voters. ECI officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday that following Gandhi's allegations, it had written to him to discuss all issues pertaining to the elections and the letter was delivered to his address on June 12, but there had been no response from him. In its letter to Gandhi titled "Invitation for an interaction with the Commission" dated June 12, the Commission said: "We presume that any issue regarding conduct of elections would have already been raised through election petitions filed in the competent court of law by the INC candidates. However, if you still have any issues, you are welcome to write to us and the Commission is also willing to meet you in person at a mutually convenient date and time to discuss all issues. A convenient date and time may be communicated in this regard." HT has seen a copy of the letter. ECI officials said the issues raised by Gandhi in the June 7 article were similar to those raised by the Congress after the Maharashtra Assembly elections in November 2024 and a detailed reply had been given to the party on December 24. ECI officials said that the Congress party has also not met the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the two Election Commissioners, two months after ECI invited all political parties to meet the poll body in New Delhi to redress grievances. Meanwhile, responding to Gandhi's tweet, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis took to X on Tuesday and said that the pain of Congress' crushing defeat in Maharasthra is growing day by day. "By the way, for your information, there are more than 25 constituencies in Maharashtra where voter turnout increased by over 8 percent between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, and Congress won in many of those places," he said. "Even if not with allied parties, it would have been better if you had spoken to your own party's long-time associates like Aslam Shaikh, Vikas Thakre, and Nitin Raut before this tweet. At least the Congress wouldn't have performed so poorly due to a lack of communication."...