Mumbai, June 8 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party lashed out on Saturday against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for alleging systematic rigging of the 2024 Maharashtra elections, a claim also rebuffed by Election Commission officials who called it misinformation. The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha published an op-ed on Saturday, claiming the Maharashtra polls were a "blueprint for rigging democracy" and alleging "industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of our national institutions". Up in arms, BJP leaders ridiculed Gandhi's suggestions. "Rahul Gandhi thinks that people will believe lies if they are told repeatedly," said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. "He has made these claims several times since the elections, and the Election Commission of India (EC) has clarified repeatedly with proof. The poll body has presented facts and figures from previous elections to prove that Gandhi's claim is baseless, but he is not ready to accept it." Fadnavis added that Gandhi's attempt of levelling allegations against the EC was a sign that he had accepted his party's defeat in the forthcoming Bihar elections. "It's high time he stopped fooling himself and accepted the ground reality," he said. "Until he does this, his party will not be able to win elections." Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule pointed out that the Congress-NCP alliance came back to power in those assembly polls. "Does this mean your party rigged the voter figures?" he asked. In the op-ed, Gandhi outlined what he termed a five-step rigging process: rigging the panel for appointing the EC, adding fake voters to electoral rolls, inflating voter turnout, targeting bogus voting where the BJP needed wins, and hiding evidence. Election Commission officials, who did not want to be named, reiterated their stance of following laid-down procedures as per law, dismissing allegations of voter percentage spikes and substantial jumps in elector numbers. One of these officials emphasised that electoral roll preparation for the assembly elections occurred under the oversight of over 100,000 booth level agents appointed by political parties, including 27,099 from the Congress itself. "Instead of writing to the EC directly, it is very strange that Rahul Gandhi keeps approaching the media seeking answers to his doubts again and again," said this top-level official. "After losing the match, blaming the referee has become the standard practice." EC did not respond to requests for a comment. Following the off-record responses by EC officials, Gandhi took to X at 6.56pm on Saturday and wrote on the issue again: "Dear EC, You are a Constitutional body. Releasing unsigned, evasive notes to intermediaries is not the way to respond to serious questions," Gandhi posted, demanding the publication of consolidated, digital voter rolls and release of post-5pm CCTV footage from Maharashtra polling booths....