Rahul Gandhi claims faulty ink enabled vote theft, but ECI denies, as BJP leads in Mumbai polls.

Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, accused the Indian Election Commission of "gaslighting" citizens by allegedly allowing vote theft through defective indelible ink. He made these comments while votes were being counted for Maharashtra's civic body elections, which include the BMC in Mumbai, amid allegations that sanitizers could be used to remove the ink. The BJP rejected the accusations as politically motivated attempts to divert attention from an anticipated defeat, while the ECI opened an investigation and confirmed that standard ink was used. With a 52.94% turnout in the first BMC elections in eight years, preliminary results indicate that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is in the lead.