The Election Commission on Tuesday rejected the Congress’ allegations of arbitrary addition and deletion of voter names from the electoral rolls in Maharashtra, where Assembly elections were held in November.
The poll body also said that voter turnout data at 5 pm – when polls close – cannot be compared with the final tally.
On November 29, the Congress’ Maharashtra unit claimed in a letter to the Election Commission that there was an “unprecedented increase” of around 47 lakh voters in the electoral rolls between July and November. The Opposition party also claimed that an “implausible” 76 lakh votes were cast in the last hour of polling.
“It is significant to note that out of the 50 Assembly Constituencies where there was an average increase of 50,000 voters, the ruling regime and its allies secured victory from 47 of these Constituencies,” stated the letter sent by the party’s Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole, state unit in-charge Ramesh Chennithala and party general secretary Mukul Wasni.
On November 23, the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra – comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena group led by Eknath Shinde and the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Ajit Pawar – won 230 seats in the 288-member Assembly.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi – comprising the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Sharad Pawar and the Congress – won 46 seats.
On Tuesday, the Election Commission called the Congress’ allegations “misleading and factually incorrect”.
“The factual position pertaining to enrollment of electors between the period of Lok Sabha Election, 2024 and Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha Election, 2024 indicates that there are only six Assembly Constituencies, and not 50 Assembly Constituencies, where total additions were over 50,000 electors,” said the poll body.
It added: “Thus, the question of the ruling regime and its allies winning 47 seats out of these 50 seats (factually nonexistent) on this basis does not arise.”
Regarding allegations of irregular deletion of voters in Maharashtra, the Election Commission stated that there were no bulk or unusual deletions across any Assembly Constituencies.
An average of 2,779 electors per constituency were deleted due to death, shifting and duplicate entries, following due process with participation from Congress representatives, the poll body added.
The Congress had also claimed that “several glaring discrepancies have been reported in the voter turnout data in the Assembly polls”.
The party pointed out that on November 20, the day of polling in Maharashtra, a voter turnout of 58.22% was reported by 5 pm. By 11.30 pm on the same day, the turnout went up to 65.02% and reached 66.05% by November 21.
The Election Commission responded by saying that considering the voter turnout data obtained at 5 pm as the final count or as its closest approximation is “merely a misconception”.
“The voting data provided at 11:45 PM on the day of poll can also not be considered as final voter turnout, as it is also not possible to provide the final voter turnout data before scrutiny of Election Papers, which is held on the next day of poll in the presence of the candidates and observers,” said the poll body. “Also, some polling parties may not have been able to return/submit their documents by that time.”
The Election Commission said that it was impossible to alter the actual voter turnout, as Form 17C, which contains a record of votes recorded in an Electronic Voting Machine, is available to authorised agents of candidates at the polling station at the time of closing.
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