Polling officials did not count 5,54,598 votes in 362 constituencies that were cast during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, civil society organisation Association for Democratic Reforms said in a report on Monday.
On the other hand, 35,093 votes were counted in excess of the votes polled in 176 constituencies.
Overall, there was a significant discrepancy of 5,89,691 votes in 538 parliamentary constituencies between the number of votes cast and votes counted during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the report said.
No difference was seen in Gujarat’s Amreli, Kerala’s Attingal, Lakshadweep, and Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu. Gujarat’s Surat constituency was uncontested as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared winner unopposed after the Congress’ Nilesh Kumbhani was disqualified by the polling officer and other candidates withdrew their nominations.
The Association for Democratic Reforms extrapolated state-wise data available with the Election Commission to claim the difference between the votes polled and the votes counted using Electronic Voting Machines.
The organisation alleged that the poll panel had failed to give reasonable explanations for declaring the results before releasing the final and authentic data on the vote count, and the mismatch in the votes polled and counted.
The Election Commission also failed to explain the increase in the voter turnout, the non-disclosure of the number of votes polled in numbers and the “unreasonable” delay in the release of votes polled data and the clean-up of certain data from its website, said the report.
According to it, the poll panel must publish the total number of electors in each constituency, the number of voters as noted in the register of voters, and the number of voters as per the Electronic Voting Machine for all the constituencies that had already gone to the polls to maintain the purity and legitimacy of elections.
“In order to remove any/all apprehensions from the minds of the voters, EC [Election Commission] should provide the following information in the public domain for the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections and for all future elections, i.e., Statutory forms 17C, Form 20, Form 21C, Form 21D and Form 21E,” it added.
While Form 17C contains a record of votes recorded in an Electronic Voting Machine, the other forms mentioned contain records of the final results and information pertaining to polling.
The Election Commission, in a press conference on June 3, said allegations of delay in releasing voter turnout data and inflated total number of votes were baseless.
Responding to similar allegations on May 10, it cited data from previous elections to claim that there was no unusual lag in releasing the figures. The poll panel said that even in previous elections, the updated voter turnout was always higher than the figure stated on the day of the polling.
However, in several places, the Lok Sabha elections were marred by allegations of irregularities and violence.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district, Muslims alleged that the police stormed booths, snatched identity cards and beat up voters on the day of polling.
The attacks were reported from Muslim-majority villages that voted overwhelmingly for Samajwadi Party in the 2022 Assembly polls.
In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Amol Kirtikar has filed a petition challenging the victory of Ravindra Waikar, a member of the Shiv Sena faction headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, from the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha seat.
Waikar defeated Kirtikar on June 4 by 48 votes. The Uddhav Sena leader argued that his rival’s victory was void because the poll panel allegedly allowed impersonators to cast 333 votes.
Another report released by Maharashtra-based civil society organisation Vote For Democracy on July 22 also claimed that there was a cumulative increase of 4.65 crore votes from the initial turnout estimates to the final figures in the general elections.
The report added that this may have benefited the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in 79 seats across 15 states.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won 240 Lok Sabha seats, a significant dip from its tally of 303 seats in 2019. As it fell short of the majority mark of 272 seats, it had to depend on its coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance to form the government.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!