NEW DELHI: A Congress delegation raised concerns with Election Commission on Tuesday over alleged anomalies in updation of electoral rolls and post-poll surge in electoral turnout in Maharashtra elections, leading the poll panel to respond with a point-by-point clarification on all the doubts expressed by the opposition party.
The Congress delegation, comprising Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi and Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole, called for transparency to quell all doubts and sought raw data at the booth and constituency level from EC to ascertain facts. Key concerns raised by Congress were “large-scale additions and deletions of voters”, “unusual” gap in voter turnout between end of polling hours at 5 pm and end of polling day as also final turnout and the growth in votes cast as compared to LS poll across 118 constituencies, of which 102 saw victory of the Mahayuti candidate.
After the meeting, Singhvi said the Congress delegation brought to the commission’s notice “deletion of lakhs of voters” from the voter lists.
In its response, EC is learnt to have pointed out that additions to the voter list were commensurate with the normal population growth of 2%, with a large component being new electors in the 18-19 year age group. On claims of “unusually high deletions”, CEC Rajiv Kumar is said to have clarified that there were no more than 2,000-3,000 deletions on an average in most assembly constituencies, many of which were on account of dead voters. The Congress delegation was also reminded that the draft electoral roll was available for scrutiny by all parties before the polls. “Why were these objections not raised then?” the delegation was asked and nudged to do so in Delhi where the roll is being updated ahead of polls early next year.
On the surge in voter turnout, EC reiterated that turnout figures were not available real-time as EVMs had no external connectivity. The gap in turnout was on account of procedural formalities as presiding officers must attend to statutory duties near close of poll at 5 pm before updating voter turnout data on EC app. In fact, EC now releases updated voter turnout figures at 11.45 pm on polling day, which is also not final.
The Congress delegation, comprising Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi and Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole, called for transparency to quell all doubts and sought raw data at the booth and constituency level from EC to ascertain facts. Key concerns raised by Congress were “large-scale additions and deletions of voters”, “unusual” gap in voter turnout between end of polling hours at 5 pm and end of polling day as also final turnout and the growth in votes cast as compared to LS poll across 118 constituencies, of which 102 saw victory of the Mahayuti candidate.
After the meeting, Singhvi said the Congress delegation brought to the commission’s notice “deletion of lakhs of voters” from the voter lists.
In its response, EC is learnt to have pointed out that additions to the voter list were commensurate with the normal population growth of 2%, with a large component being new electors in the 18-19 year age group. On claims of “unusually high deletions”, CEC Rajiv Kumar is said to have clarified that there were no more than 2,000-3,000 deletions on an average in most assembly constituencies, many of which were on account of dead voters. The Congress delegation was also reminded that the draft electoral roll was available for scrutiny by all parties before the polls. “Why were these objections not raised then?” the delegation was asked and nudged to do so in Delhi where the roll is being updated ahead of polls early next year.
On the surge in voter turnout, EC reiterated that turnout figures were not available real-time as EVMs had no external connectivity. The gap in turnout was on account of procedural formalities as presiding officers must attend to statutory duties near close of poll at 5 pm before updating voter turnout data on EC app. In fact, EC now releases updated voter turnout figures at 11.45 pm on polling day, which is also not final.