TRAI refutes Congress' claim of blocking 'poll-stolen' SMS outreach in Maharashtra: 'Not involved at any stage'

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is leading a nationwide campaign claiming that elections in India were "being stolen". (File: PTI)

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has dismissed the Congress' claim that the regulatory body rejected the party's application to send SMSes to its workers in Maharashtra to inform them of a documentary on how the Maharashtra 2024 elections "were stolen".

In a post on its social media handle on X, TRAI said that it does not approve individual SMS templates and the question of rejecting an application, thus, does not arise.

"No application was received by TRAI for sending SMS to a political party's Maharashtra cadre on how the 2024 Assembly election was ‘stolen’. TRAI doesn't approve individual SMS templates," TRAI said in its social media post.

The telecom regulatory body further said that the Congress' application was rejected by the service provider and not by TRAI as the party earlier claimed.

#FactCheck
No application was received by #TRAI for sending SMS to a political party's Maharashtra cadre on how the 2024 Assembly election was ‘stolen’.
TRAI doesn't approve individual SMS templates.
As per the photo, it is clear that it was rejected by the service provider, STPL pic.twitter.com/KNan82dczM

— TRAI (@TRAI) September 8, 2025

At no stage was TRAI involved in the process, it added further, sharing an image of the post shared by the Congress claiming that its application was rejected by TRAI.

"As per the photo, it is clear that it was rejected by the service provider, STPL," it stated.

"Apparently the application was submitted to one of the service providers who rejected it. TRAI was at no stage involved in this process. In fact, TRAI does not deal with approval of individual message templates," TRAI added.

The Congress on Monday claimed that TRAI rejected its application and told the party that messages could not be sent as they were "protest content".

Praveen Chakravarty, the chairman of the data analytics department of the Congress, also claimed how the "refusal by TRAI" was representative of the "perfect synchronisation between home ministry, EC and telecom regulator to suppress information".

"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 asked.

Sharing a screenshot of what he claimed were messages shared by the authorities rejecting the request, Chakravarty claimed that it was done despite the application being filed as per the laid down process.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore also questioned the decision and accused TRAI of becoming the IT Cell of the BJP.

"Ridiculous. When Congress tried to send a simple SMS with this link, TRAI rejected permission, calling it protest content. Who controls this censorship chain? Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnav, Gnaneshwar (Kumar). Home Ministry (does) surveillance. Railways/Telecom Ministry blocks communication. Election Commission (remains) silent spectator. One coordinated machine to hide the truth of MH 2024 fraud. Amit bhai, if Maharashtra elections weren’t stolen, why are you so scared of a YouTube link? Ashwini ji, since when did TRAI become the BJP’s IT Cell? Mr. Gnaneshwar, your signature on this rejection note is proof of regulatory capture. Suppressing SMS won’t suppress truth. Blocking Congress workers won’t block democracy," he said.

Tagore further added that the more the government tries to suppress information, the louder will people's questions get. "The more you censor, the louder people will ask: What exactly are you hiding about MH 2024 elections?"