The Election Commission (ECI) rejected the demand of the Congress and other opposition parties on Saturday, 21 June 2025, which asked to make the CCTV footage of polling stations public after 5 pm in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections. The Commission, citing the confidentiality and security of the voters, said that sharing the footage could cause pressure, discrimination or threat to the voters.
Commission officials said that CCTV footage is used only for internal management and it is not compulsory law. It is kept for 45 days, which is in line with the period of filing an election petition. The footage is then destroyed so that it is not misused, such as wrong information or malicious stories. The officials gave the example, saying, “If a party gets less votes at a booth, then through CCTV footage it can be found out which voter voted or not, after which they can be harassed.”
Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi criticized the rule and described it as part of “rigging in elections”. He wrote on X, “Voter list? Machine-elective format will not be given; CCTV footage? The law changed to the law; photo-video of the election? Not in a year, will destroy in 45 days. The answer is destroying the answer.”
In December last year, the government amended the Conduct of Election Rules, Rule 93 of the 1961 on the recommendation of the Election Commission, under which electronic documents such as CCTV and webcasting footage were removed from public inspection. The amendment came after the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in which the Haryana assembly elections were directed to share the footage.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, while defending the amendment, said that it was done to protect the confidentiality of voters and to prevent fake stories through AI. He also clarified that the candidates would have access to all records related to their constituency.
The Congress described the move as a weakening of the transparency of the electoral process and said to challenge it in the court. The party’s communication head Jairam Ramesh said, “It further reduces the credibility of the Election Commission.”
