The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday categorically said that there was no discrepancy in the voter turnout data in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, held last month.
Notably, on 29th November, the Congress had filed a complaint with the poll panel in which it alleged arbitrary deletion of voters and subsequent additions, and inexplicable increase in voting percentages in Maharashtra polls.
In its detailed response to the Congress, the ECI, on alleged inexplicable increase in voting percentages in the polls, said, “The so called inexplicable increase in voting percentage from 5 pm to the final voter percentage declared by the ECI at 11:30 pm on day of poll (20th November), it is stated upfront that there is no discrepancy whatsoever in the voter turnout.”
Noting that the electoral eco system of India is built on a decentralised design where the core activity / electoral steps are organised and accounted for at polling station levelm, the poll panel said the Assembly constituency /Parliamentary constituency (PC) overview, thus, remains primarily an aggregation.
The ECI also elaborated in details about the aggregation of the voter turnout.
“The concept of voter turnout is neither defined anywhere in the election laws nor does any statute stipulate publication of data of voter turnout at constituency level, state level or at national level. The count of electors and voters on polling day is statutorily centered polling station wise. Considering 5 pm data as the final voter turnout or as its closest approximation is merely a misconception,” it said.
On the allegation of arbitrary additions of voters by the Congress, the ECI said, “The issue raised in your representation regarding 50 Assembly constituencies with an average addition of 50,000 electors between July 2024 to November 2024 is misleading and factually incorrect. The factual position pertaining to enrollment of electors between the period of Lok Sabha elections and Maharashtra Assembly elections, indicates that there are only 6 Assembly constituencies, and not 50 ACs, where total additions were over 50,000 electors.”
On the allegation of arbitrary deletion of voters, the poll panel informed that there is a total deletion of 8,00,391 electors which comes to an average of 2,779 electors per Assembly seat.
The ECI said the deletions are reported to be on account of death/ shifting and duplicate entries after following due process i.e. after obtaining Form-7, serving notice, field verification and sharing of the list of claims and objections in this behalf with all recognised political parties.