A Congress delegation met Election Fee (EC) officers in New Delhi on Tuesday and raised issues over alleged inconsistencies within the electoral course of for the Maharashtra Meeting polls, together with the problem of enormous numbers of deletions and additions within the voter record.
The opposition celebration sought uncooked information from the ballot panel to determine info.
The Congress delegation, together with Rajya Sabha MPs Abhishek Singhvi, Mukul Wasnik, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, Gurdeep Singh Sappal and Praveen Chakravarty, met EC officers and defined the celebration’s issues over the polls.
“We had a dialogue in a constructive, cordial and constructive ambiance. I began by telling the Fee that we’re furthering the reason for democracy as a result of an uneven, non-level area for elections instantly impacts the fundamental construction of the Indian Structure,” Singhvi informed reporters after the assembly.
He mentioned the delegation raised three-four most important points, together with massive variety of deletions from voter lists in the course of the five-month interval between the Lok Sabha and the Meeting elections.
“We questioned the door-to-door surveys, that are mandatorily required earlier than deletions. We’ve requested for the uncooked information for the shape concerned. For deletions, it’s Kind 7 and for additions it’s Kind 6,” he mentioned, including that the Congress sought booth- and constituency-wise information for Maharashtra.
“This uncooked information will inform us how there was such a big quantity and, if really it was preceded by a door-to-door test. We expressed concern over the deletions as floor staff pointed to situations of 1 particular person having 250 varieties. Such en-masse, collective deletion smacks of nice suspicion and mistrust,” Singhvi mentioned.
He added the delegation additionally raised with the EC how, in a short while, 47 lakh additions have been made between the Lok Sabha and the Meeting polls.
“The EC states it’s 39 lakh. That isn’t a small quantity. It’s important to set up transparency by exhibiting door-to-door surveys. We’ve requested for the uncooked information,” he mentioned.
Singhvi mentioned additionally they flagged how EC information confirmed the voter turnout at 58 per cent at 5 pm on November 20 and 65.02 per cent at 11:30 pm.
“Two days later, it was 66.05 per cent, which is a distinction of seven per cent. We’ve labored it out, it’s about 76 lakh voters. The EC informed us that voter turnout shouldn’t be in actual time and Kind 17 C will give an identical determine. Nevertheless, we would like uncooked information and it begs a proof how there will be that huge a distinction,” Singhvi mentioned.
He mentioned 118 constituencies, of which the BJP received 102, had an extra voter turnout of 25,000 in comparison with the Lok Sabha polls 5 months in the past.
“That is unnatural. We’d like uncooked information for it,” he mentioned.
The EC has promised a point-by-point clarification and rebuttal in future, Singhvi mentioned.
The Congress on November 29 raised with the EC “critical and grave inconsistencies” that it mentioned have been being revealed within the information regarding the polling and counting processes for the Maharashtra polls and sought an in-person listening to to current related proof.
In a memorandum to the ballot panel, AICC Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, Patole and AICC common secretary Wasnik had mentioned “these evident inconsistencies”, which struck on the very root of a clear, free and truthful electoral system, weren’t primarily based on any biased motive or farfetched presumptions however had been extracted from the knowledge made publicly obtainable by the Fee.
Of their memorandum, the Congress leaders had mentioned: “The truth is, questions regarding Maharashtra’s voter information have additionally been raised by a former chief election commissioner, therefore we’re bringing the identical to the eye of this Fee.”
“Within the days main as much as the polling day, the Indian Nationwide Congress and its allies obtained a number of ground-level experiences about totally different means being adopted by the ruling regime to commit large-scale electoral fraud throughout the Meeting constituencies in Maharashtra,” the memorandum mentioned.
The Congress leaders mentioned these included situations of arbitrary deletion of names from the voter record and consequent insertion of roughly 10,000 voters per constituency throughout Maharashtra.
“With this train of unchecked and arbitrary deletion and consequent insertion of voters, the state of Maharashtra witnessed an unprecedented improve of an estimated 47 lakh voters being added to the electoral roll from July-November 2024,” the memorandum mentioned.
