The Election Commission of India.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday defended the poll procedures adopted in Maharashtra and assured to review all "legitimate concerns" flagged by the Congress.
In response to a letter from the Congress on Friday raising questions about the Maharashtra elections, the EC also invited a Congress delegation on December 3 evening to discuss concerns expressed by it.
The party, in its memorandum, claimed “unprecedented increase” in the number of voters after an “arbitrary” deletion of names from voter’s list besides raising concern over the “inexplicable” increase in voter percentage from 5 pm to 11:30 pm on the polling day on November 20.
The EC said it would come out with a "detailed" response after hearing the delegation in person on Tuesday at 5 PM.
On the concerns of deletion of names from electoral rolls and subsequent addition, the EC said the electoral rolls are always prepared and finalised with "close involvement of all parties, including the Congress."
"The copies of the draft electoral roll published are given to political parties and the verification process involves political parties at every stage of the process. Having stated this, the Commission would get the issues raised by the Congress examined and keep them informed of the outcome," it said.
Congress had claimed that it had complained to the EC in October itself but it was ignored. They claimed that there were “instances of arbitrary deletion from voter’s list and consequent insertion” of around 10,000 voters per constituency and the BJP won 47 of 50 seats where there was an increase of around 50,000 votes each.
On the alleged discrepancy on voter turnout data, the EC said data was available with all candidates polling station-wise and is verifiable. Congress had said that there was an increase of around 7 per cent between 5 pm and 11.30 pm and it meant around 76 lakh votes were cast in one hour at the end of polling at 6 pm.
"The presiding officer near the completion of polling at the polling station performs multiple statutory responsibilities before winding up the polling at the polling station. The data feeding from all polling stations into the voter turnout app, at this stage, thus takes time," the EC said.
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Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls took place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP went up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress tried to make their mark. Maha Yuti are currently comfortably poised to win. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faced a challenge after Hemant Soren's arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP, but look set to retain power with its I.N.D.I.A. allies. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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