NEW DELHI, Aug. 9 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday stepped up its attack against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of irregularities in the electoral list, and said that the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha should explain how parties other than the BJP won in at least 53 constituencies in Maharashtra, which registered an increase in voters between the Lok Sabha polls held in May 2024 and the assembly polls in November of the same year. "In his statement yesterday, he said there has been an addition of 1 million voters in Maharashtra... According to the ECl, there was an increase of only 40 lakh voters. This is straight-up 60% less than what Rahul Gandhi said," Union minister Bhupendra Yadav said. Accusing the Congress leader of "spreading misinformation and targeting" the poll panel, Yadav said, "In Maharashtra, they (opposition) have won most of their seats in places where the votes have increased." Yadav cited the example of Nagpur (North), a reserved constituency, which elected Congress' Nitin Raut. As per the BJP, the voters here increased by 23,421 yet the Congress candidate representing the Opposition's MahaVikas Agadi (MVA) alliance won by a margin of 28,467 votes. Among the other constituencies where the MVA won by a sizable margin, the BJP said, similar trends were noticed in Bhiwandi East, a general seat, which was won by Samajwadi Party's Rais Shaikh. Another example was of Parbhani, also a general category seat, which was won by Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Rahul Patil. Yadav said any change (increase or decrease) in voters within the Election Commission's procedure is part of its independent functioning. "But when we look at the increased votes and the victory margins, the Congress example of Nagpur West comes up -here the votes increased by 23,000 and Congress's Vikas Pandurang Thakre won by 5,824 votes. That means Rahul Gandhi's theory collapses on its own in light of this result," he said, adding that Gandhi has made it "a habit to target constitutional bodies". On Thursday, Gandhi alleged there was widespread discrepancy and manipulation in the voter list of Karnataka's Mahadevapura constituency and claimed the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were "choreographed" to favour the BJP. Yadav criticised him for using "aggressive language" for officials of the Election Commission and asked whether the use of such intimidating language behoves the LoP....