Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Still fuming over defeat in the Maharashtra state Assembly elections, the Congress on Friday submitted an “urgent memorandum” to the Election Commission of India asking for an in-person meeting to red-flag “certain serious and grave inconsistencies in data related to polling and counting processes.”
The party said the inconsistencies were being revealed in the data relating to the polling and counting processes for the Maharashtra elections and were not mere allegations. The 12-page document submitted this afternoon, the Congress also referred to doubts about voter data that were raised by former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and raised two points of concern.
The first was “arbitrary deletion of voters and subsequent addition of over 10,000 voters in each constituency” and the second was an “inexplicable increase in voting percentages…” In the memorandum to the poll panel, AICC Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole and AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik said “these glaring inconsistencies” which strike at the very root of a transparent, free and fair electoral system were not based on any biased motives or far-fetched presumptions but have been extracted from the information made publicly available by the Commission.
Sharing the memorandum on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the leaders have raised serious issues which were being discussed in the public domain. In their memorandum, the Congress leaders said, “In fact, questions relating to Maharashtra’s voter data have also been raised by a former Chief Election Commissioner, hence we are bringing the same to the attention of this Commission.”
They flagged two issues of arbitrary deletion of voters and subsequent addition of over 10,000 voters in each constituency from the final voter lists as well as inexplicable increase in voting percentages from 5 p.m. to the final voter percentage declared by the Commission at 11.30 p.m. on the day of polling on November 20.
“In the days leading up to the polling day, the Indian National Congress (INC) and its allies received several on ground-level reports about different means being adopted by the ruling regime to commit large scale electoral fraud across the Assembly Constituencies in Maharashtra,” the memorandum said.
The Congress leaders said these included instances of arbitrary deletion of voters from the voter list and consequent insertion of roughly 10,000 voters per constituency across Maharashtra. “With this exercise of unchecked and arbitrary deletion and consequent insertion of voters, the state of Maharashtra witnessed an unprecedented increase of an estimated 47 lakh voters being added to the electoral roll from between July 2024 – November 2024,” the memorandum said.
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, the leaders argued. “These data points on a prima facie reading, demonstrates that — there has been a significant and inexplicable increase in the number of registered voters across the state of Maharashtra; and there has been an exercise of deletion and addition of names in voters lists; all of which have conveniently worked to the advantage of the incumbent government,” the memorandum said.
This issue was duly raised by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance on October 19 before this Commission, he said. “However, no cogent action was taken by this Commission on the Representation dated 19.10.2024 submitted by the MVA Alliance in this regard,” the memorandum said.
They urged the Commission to immediately undertake a thorough investigation and prepare a detailed report on the addition and deletion of voters in Maharashtra.
Elaborating on the other issue, the Congress leaders said several glaring discrepancies have been reported in the voter turn-out data for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Pointing out that as per the data made available by this Commission, the polling percentage across the State of Maharashtra at 5 p.m. was 58.22%, they said the percentage was later reported to be 65.02% as of 11.30 p.m. on the same day.
In fact, it is pertinent to place reliance on the statements by former Chief Election Commissioner of India S.Y. Qureshi, who has gone on record to state that the voter data that is made available on the date of polling is recorded and updated in real time, therefore, there is no logical explanation of what has transpired in Maharashtra, the Congress leaders said.
The manner in which genuine doubts have arisen in the minds of the electorate regarding the conduct of free and fair elections, it is imperative that this Commission provides a clear response justifying the inconsistencies and the discrepancies which have been reported both prior to the elections and post elections, they said.
“We would also request that this Commission grant us an urgent in-person hearing to raise all our issues in detail. In fact, apart from the two issues mentioned herein, there are several other constituency specific issues which we would like to raise before this Commission,” the Congress leaders said.
Based on these points, the Congress has alleged a systemic effort to try and reduce the number of voters (and votes) “sympathetic to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (the opposition alliance, of which the Congress is a member, and which lost heavily to the BJP-led Mahayuti combine)”. The Congress has urged the EC to conduct a thorough investigation into its complaints.
The Congress submitted alleged manipulation of voter list at the Tuljapur seat as an example, noting “fake Aadhaar cards were created by individuals with differing photos and names” to cast illegal votes. The Tuljapur seat – held by the Congress’ Madhukarrao Chavan from 1999 to 2014 – was won by the BJP’s Ranajagjitsinha Patil by 37,000 votes. This is the first time the BJP has ever won this seat.
On the second red-flag – i.e., discrepancies in voter turnout data – the Congress pointed out the EC’s average voter turnout at 5 pm was 58.22 per cent, and that this jumped to 65.02 per cent by 11.30 pm. “Further, there was another increase in voting percentage, ultimately being reported as 66.05 per cent, several hours prior to counting. From a common sense viewpoint, over 70 lakh votes being cast in the closing hour of polling is implausible and unheard of in electoral history…” the Congress reasoned.
“Even assuming time taken by one individual to cast their vote is two minutes… it is impossible for the Election Commission to have even come out with the final data by 11.30 pm, considering that 76 lakh voters would have exercised their franchise within the last hour of polling…” “It is submitted,” the Congress’ letter concluded, “that the said discrepancies raise several questions about the manner in which the election was conducted across Maharashtra.”
Continuing claims about voter fraud, the slow rate at which data is published (on the EC’s website) on counting day, and the credibility of EVMs, or electronic voting machines, made headlines earlier this month too, after the Congress complained about the Haryana poll result.
Exit polls had expected the party to claim a convincing win and the day began well, with the Congress surging into an early big lead. However, as counting continued the BJP scripted a comeback and, eventually, a comfortable win to claim a historic third term in the state.
On complaints about the Haryana result, the EC had hit back hard, criticising the Congress for making “baseless allegations… when faced with inconvenient electoral outcomes”, and warning it, and other parties, against “unfounded and sensational complaints” during voting and counting processes.
The Congress’ complaints about EVMs and potential voter fraud, meanwhile, have been picked up and trashed by the BJP. On Thursday the winning party pointed out that if its rival’s claim about faulty EVMs are true, then the results of elections they had won should be questioned too. “If they lose, they start crying about EVMs. And, if they win, the Congress wins… It is not the EVM, it is the Congress’ intentions that are bad!” the BJP said in a Hindi post on X.
Meanwhile, a social activist Dr Baba Adhav has started an agitation in Pune against Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), calling their use in elections a “fraud.” The activist, who is in his 90s, started his 3-day protest at Phule Wada, the residence of iconic social reformer Jyotiba Phule, in the city on Thursday.
After their crushing defeat, many MVA leaders have cast aspersions on the credibility of EVMs. Several political leaders, including Rohit Pawar of NCP (SP), visited the social activist in Pune. NCP’s Chhagan Bhujbhal, who had come to Phule Wada for some other engagement, also called on the activist.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance scripted a powerful comeback in the state assembly elections by winning 230 seats in the 288-member House. Recovering from its Lok Sabha elections losses, the BJP bagged 132 constituencies, the highest among all constituents of the Mahayuti. Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP also performed well. The Shiv Sena won 57 seats while the NCP won 41 seats.
The Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a setback. The grand old party registered one of its worst performances in the state assembly polls after it won only 16 seats. Sharad Pawar’s NCP(SP) won just 10 seats, whereas Uddhav Thackeray’s (UBT) won 20 seats.