Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi on Sunday rejected allegations that funding from the United States Agency for International Development was used to help increase vote turnout when he held the post.

Quraishi said that the allegations did not “have an iota of fact” and called them “false and malicious”.

He headed the poll panel between July 30, 2010, and June 10, 2012.

USAID is an independent agency that is mainly responsible for administering foreign aid and development assistance on behalf of the US government.

On January 24, President Donald Trump imposed a 90-day freeze on money distributed by the organisation pending a review by the US State Department. The US Department of Government Efficiency is led by billionaire Elon Musk.

On Sunday, the US Department of Government Efficiency announced on social media platform X the cancellation of several programmes “costing taxpayers’ dollars”.

The list included $486 million in grants to the nonprofit organisation Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, including $21 million “for voter turnout” in India.

The consortium comprises three organisations – the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and The International Foundation for Electoral Systems – that support elections and political transitions globally.

It is funded by the USAID Global Elections and Political Transitions Program.

The Department of Government Efficiency did not provide further details, including the Indian entity or organisation that was allegedly meant to receive the grants.

Following its cancellation, Bharatiya Janata Party publicity chief Amit Malviya on Sunday called the funding an “external interference” in the election process in India and asked who was its beneficiary. “Not the ruling party for sure,” he claimed on X.

“Once again, it is George Soros, a known associate of the Congress party and the Gandhis, whose shadow looms over our electoral process,” Malviya said in another post on X.

The ruling BJP has repeatedly claimed that Opposition Congress was conspiring with Soros, a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist, to destabilise the Narendra Modi government.

Malviya alleged: “In 2012, under the leadership of SY Quraishi, the Election Commission signed an MoU [memorandum of understanding] with The International Foundation for Electoral Systems – an organisation linked to George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which is primarily funded by USAID.”

The BJP leader was referring to the memorandum of understanding signed between the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and the Election Commission on May 17, 2012.

This agreement was to make “available the knowledge and experience of ECI to election managers and practitioners around the world through Commission’s India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management,” The Indian Express cited a press note from the poll panel as saying at the time.

“Ironically, those questioning the transparent and inclusive process of appointing India’s Election Commissioner – a first in our democracy, where previously the prime minister alone made the decision – had no hesitation in handing over the entire Election Commission of India to foreign operators,” the BJP leader said.

In response to the allegations, Quraishi said: “The report in a section of media about an MoU by the ECI in 2012, when I was CEC [Chief Election Commission], for funding of certain million dollars by a US agency for raising voter turnout in India does not have an iota of fact.”

Quraishi said that there was a memorandum of understanding signed with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in 2012 “like we had with many other agencies and Election Management Bodies to facilitate training for desirous countries at ECI’s training and resource centre, IIIDEM [India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management], which was very new at that stage”.

He said that there was “no financing or even promise of finance involved in MoU, forget X or Y amount”. The agreement “made it clear in black and white” that there would be no financial and legal obligation of any kind on either side, he added.

“This stipulation was made at two different places to leave no scope for any ambiguity,” he said. “Any mention of any funds in connection with this MoU is completely false and malicious.”

Later on Monday, Congress leader Pawan Khera also responded to Malviya’s allegations.

“Someone tell this clown that in 2012, when ECI allegedly got this funding from USAID, the ruling party was Congress,” Khera said on X. “So, by his logic: Ruling party (Congress) was sabotaging its own electoral prospects by getting this so called ‘external interference.’”

He added: “And that the opposition [BJP] won the 2014 elections because of Soros/USAID.”