India, the so-called ‘world’s largest democracy,’ seems increasingly devoted to testing the elasticity of that title. In November 2024, the state of Maharashtra, home to over 120 million people, held an election so brazen in its manipulation that it deserves not bureaucratic scrutiny but criminal prosecution. The data doesn’t lie. But the system built to count and protect votes seems to.
Between May and November 2024, Maharashtra’s voter rolls swelled by over 4.1 million names. That’s not organic democratic growth. It’s demographic fiction. For context, in the entire five years between the 2014 and 2019 state elections, the rolls only grew by 12.2 million. The sudden bulge within five months isn’t a bureaucratic oversight. It’s digital stuffing. The official adult population of the state was estimated at 95.4 million. And yet, by November, the rolls had 97 million registered voters. That math doesn’t add up unless the Election Commission is registering ghosts or children.
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