Congress poses questions over LS polls conduct, urges EC to address concerns

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday cited a report by a citizens’ platform, which has raised questions about substantial hike in the Lok Sabha voting turnout percentages and urged the Election Commission to address the concerns.

The opposition party said if the Election Commission does not address the doubts raised in the 'Vote for Democracy' report, its leadership will then take a call on whether to raise the matter in other forums, including in the courts.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said according to the analysis, there is an unusually big difference between the voter turnout figures declared initially and the final figures, especially in some states such as Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

He said there are at least 55-60 seats over which the revelations raise a question mark and if those are taken off the tally of the BJP one can imagine which alliance would have taken oath.

The Election Commission (EC) is a constitutional institution, but if the work of a constitutional institution directly affects democracy, then it becomes its responsibility to clear the air, the Congress leader said.

Vote for Democracy (VFD) Maharashtra in a report released in Mumbai last month claimed significant discrepancies between the votes polled and counted as well as "substantial unexplained hike" in the turnout percentages and said the EC failed to address this issue.

The cumulative hike in votes from initial turnout figures to final figures is precisely 4,65,46,885, which is a 3.2 per cent to 6.32 per cent increase across the seven phases of the election completed between April 19 and June 1, a VFD release had said.

The report has called for "an independent investigation under autonomous supervision" into the allegations and demanded that the Election Commission of India take immediate action to address them.