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New Delhi: Amid controversy over the quality of indelible ink used in marker pens in Maharashtra Civic Polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has strongly criticized the Election Commission of India (ECI), saying the poll body is \u201cgaslighting\u201d citizens and eroding public trust in the democratic process.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, Indian opposition leaders said that the ink mark applied on voters\u2019 fingers can be easily removed, enabling bogus voting. Amid polling for 29 Municipal Corporations of Maharashtra, social media was flooded with videos purportedly showing the ink being wiped off using chemicals such as acetone.<\/p>\n
Rahul Gandhi shared on X a media report on the row which stated that “opposition, voters cry foul over fading ink markers”. Commenting on the report, Gandhi wrote, “Election commission gaslighting citizens is how trust has collapsed in our democracy. Vote Chori is an anti-national act.”<\/p>\n
Earlier, Mumbai Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Varsha Gaikwad posted a video of her party colleague using acetone to wipe off the ink from his finger.<\/p>\n
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray also raised the issue after casting his vote in Dadar, while Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said he too received reports of ink being washed away.<\/p>\n
“This is shocking,” the former Chief Minister said, accusing Maharashtra State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare of siding with the ruling BJP-led alliance and demanding his suspension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: Amid controversy over the quality of indelible ink used in marker pens in Maharashtra Civic Polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has strongly criticized the Election Commission of India (ECI), saying the poll body is \u201cgaslighting\u201d citizens and eroding public trust in the democratic process. According to Kashmir Media Service, Indian opposition leaders said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":192748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/01\/Rahul-Ganday.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192749,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192747\/revisions\/192749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}