Congress flags serious discrepancies with Election Commission

New Delhi: The Congress, which managed to win only 16 of the 103 seats contested in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, has now submitted an 'urgent memorandum' to the Election Commission (EC), seeking an inquiry into the 'serious and serious discrepancies' related to the data. has sought. For voting and counting procedures.

The party has mentioned deletion, addition and surprise voting of voters in its 12-page representation submitted by Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole, Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik and Congress Working Committee member Ramesh Chennithala. The increase in voting percentage after 5 pm on the polling day is a matter of concern. Some of these issues were also raised earlier by former Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi.

Congress has claimed that a planned attempt was made to deprive it of votes. It claimed that first 'voters were arbitrarily removed' to suit the interests of the ruling coalition and then 'more than 10,000 voters were added in each constituency.'

It was reported that there was an unprecedented increase of (approximately) 47 lakh voters being added to the voter list between July 2024 and November 2024. It also said that out of the 50 assembly seats where there was an average increase of 50,000 voters. The ruling regime and its allies won by 47.

Similarly, the party claimed that there was an unexpected increase in voting percentage after 5 pm and asked how this happened. It said that according to the Election Commission, the average voting at 5.00 pm was 58.22% and by 11-30 pm it increased to 65.02%.

It alleged that more than 70 lakh votes were cast in the last minute of voting, which is unbelievable and unheard of in electoral history.

“Even if it is assumed that a person takes two minutes to cast his vote, it is still impossible for the Election Commission to release the final data by 11-30 pm, considering that 76 lakh voters have cast their votes in the last Must have exercised his/her franchise in time. Voting time,” it argued.

It also said that these anomalies raise questions over the way the Maharashtra Assembly elections were conducted. Demanding a probe into these issues, the Congress claimed that these were the primary reasons why the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance witnessed a significant decline in votes.