NEW DELHI: Congress on Sunday said TRAI has rejected its application to send SMSes to its workers in Maharashtra to inform them about a documentary about how the Maharashtra 2024 elections were “stolen”, with the telecom regulatory authority reportedly telling the party that the messages could not be sent as they were “protest content”.Talking about the issue on X, Congress data analytics department chairman Praveen Chakravarty said TRAI’s refusal to Congress to send the messages represented “perfect synchronisation between home ministry, Election Commission and telecom regulator to suppress?” He asked, “Does one need more telltale signs of guilt of Maharashtra election fraud than such coordinated moves by various arms of the govt to suppress and hide information?”He said the application for sending the SMS was filed with TRAI as per the laid down process, and shared the screenshot of the message sent by authorities informing about the rejection of the Congress application.Congress whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore dubbed the TRAI decision as ridiculous and remarked that TRAI seems to have become the IT cell of BJP. “Who controls this censorship chain? Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Gnaneshwar (Kumar). Home ministry surveillance. Railways/telecom ministry blocks communication. Election Commission silent spectator. One coordinated machine to hide the truth of Maharashtra 2024 fraud. Amit Shah, if Maharashtra elections weren’t stolen, why are you so scared of a YouTube link,” he asked.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused EC of withholding information that is necessary to nail the culprits behind “vote chori” in Aland assembly seat in Karnataka where, he said, “forged” Form 7 were used to remove voters from the list ahead of the 2023 state elections. He said a case was registered after the “sophisticated operation” was exposed, and a probe was ordered by the state CID. “But here’s the twist: while EC had earlier shared part of the documents needed to trace the forgery, it has now stonewalled the crucial information — effectively shielding those behind the ‘vote chori’,” he said.”Who is it (EC) protecting? BJP’s ‘vote chori’ department? Is EC bending under BJP pressure to derail the CID probe?” he asked.
