NEW DELHI: Election Commission, in its interim response Saturday to concerns raised by Congress regarding “arbitrary deletion and additions of voters” and increase in voting percentages between 5pm and 11.30pm on polling day in the recent Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections, reiterated that electoral roll updation is a transparent process conducted with the involvement of all political parties. The commission also agreed to meet a Congress delegation to hear the party’s concerns regarding the polling process, EC sources said.
While ruling out any discrepancy in turnout data, EC clarified – just as it had when similar doubts were raised by Congress during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections – that the gap in the 5pm data and the final voter turnout was on account of procedural priorities, as presiding officers perform statutory duties near the close of polling before updating voter turnout data.
EC underlined in the letter sent to Congress’s law, human rights and RTI department, that the poll panel has, starting with the 2024 general elections, made it a standard practice to put out a press statement with updated voter turnout figures as of 11.45pm on polling day, as an “additional disclosure measure”.
Congress had flagged the twin concerns despite the varied results in Maharashtra and Jharkhand – while the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance won a landslide in Maharashtra, UPA recorded a spectacular win in Jharkhand.
Even as EC, in its response, tried to allay the concerns raised by Congress, it agreed to get the issues regarding the addition and deletion of voters examined. It not only agreed to convey its detailed and final reply to the issues raised but also granted an in-person hearing to the party delegation at 5pm on Dec 3.
EC sources said the commission has agreed to meet a Congress delegation as it would like to hear what the party has to say on the concerns raised, in wake of the EC’s repeated clarifications.
In its letter to Congress, EC recalled its last letter to the party dated May 10, 2024, wherein it recorded the reasons for deviation in voting percentage at 5pm and at the close of polling day (around 11.45pm). It reiterated that total votes polled at each polling booth were given by the presiding officer, before leaving the polling station, to authorised agents of candidates in Form 17C Part 1, at the end of polling in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. “This cannot be changed…This number aggregates to final voter turnout which all political parties and candidates can verify,” stated EC.
EC said that it takes employees on poll duty from state govt departments. “The presiding officer, near the completion of polling at polling stations, performs multiple statutory responsibilities like filling up of various statutory forms, record keeping of activities in the presiding officer’s diary, sealing of the machines, etc. The data feeding from polling stations into the turnout app, at this stage, thus takes time,” it stated.