DYCM SHINDE TO MEET PM MODI WITH FAMILY

Amid concerns flagged by the Congress, the Election Commission on Tuesday said there were no arbitrary additions or deletions of voters in Maharashtra where assembly polls were held recently.

- Yogesh Naik

NEW DELHI:

The poll body focused on two primary concerns raised by the Congress - arbitrary deletion of voters and subsequent additions in the electoral rolls of Maharashtra, and changes in voter turnout data figures on the day of polling between 5 pm and 11.30 pm.

After meeting the ECI on December 3, senior Congress leader Manu Abhishek Singhvi had claimed that in 118 constituencies in the state, of which the BJP won 102, each constituency saw voter turnout increase by about 25,000 persons per constituency, compared to the general elections between the general and the state elections. In its November 29 letter to the ECI, the party had claimed that in the 50 assembly constituencies that saw an average increase of 50,000 electors, the BJP won 47 of them.

The ECI claimed that this was a "baseless accusation" that "creates unnecessary and avoidable doubts and anxiety in the mind of the public".

On discrepancy in voter turnout between 5 pm and 11:30 pm, the ECI said, "At the time of counting, data entered in Form 17C is tallied with data in EVM in presence of the counting agents and therefore allegation of gap between voting percentage data released 5:00 PM on poll day and final polling percentage data is superfluous."