New Delhi: The Congress, which managed to win only 16 of the 103 seats it contested in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, has now submitted an ‘urgent memorandum’ to the Election Commission (EC) seeking an inquiry into ‘serious and grave inconsistencies’ in the data related to the polling and counting processes.
The party has in its 12-page representation, which was submitted by president of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Nana Patole, Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik and Congress Working Committee member Ramesh Chennithala, referred to deletion and addition of voters and a sudden rise in poll percentage after 5.00pm on the voting day as areas of concern. Some of these issues were earlier also flagged by former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi.
The Congress has claimed that there was a systematic attempt to deprive it of votes. It claimed that there was first ‘arbitrary deletion of voters’ and then ‘addition of over 10,000 voters in each constituency’ to suit the interests of the ruling alliance.
It pointed out that there was an unprecedented increase of (around) 47 lakh voters being added to the electoral roll from between July 2024 and November 2024. It also stated that out of the 50 Assembly seats where there was an average increase of 50,000 voters, the ruling regime and its allies secured victory from 47.
Similarly, the party claimed that there was an inexplicable increase in voting percentages after 5.00pm and asked how this happened. It said as per the EC, the average voter turnout at 5.00pm was 58.22% and this surged to 65.02% by 11-30 pm.
It charged that over 70 lakh votes being cast in the closing hour of polling is implausible and unheard of in electoral history.
“Even assuming time taken by one individual to cast their vote is two minutes, it is impossible for the EC 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 reasoned.
It also submitted that these discrepancies raise questions about the manner in which the Maharashtra Assembly polls were conducted. Seeking a probe into these issues, the Congress claimed that these were the primary reasons why there was a marked reduction in the votes for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.
