Congress: BJP won 79 seats in LS polls by manipulating voter turnout data

New Delhi: Alleging that the BJP won 79 seats in the 2024 General Elections by manipulation of voter turnout figures, the Congress sought clarification from the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the substantial difference in the preliminary/initial and the final voter turnout figures in the 2024 General Elections.

Quoting a report by the Vote for Democracy (VFD), senior party leader and former MP Sandeep Dikshit said at a press conference here, that the overall difference in the voter turnout between what the ECI said initially and the figures it finally gave, was on an average 4.7 per cent, it counted to about 5 crore votes nationally.

‘12.5% difference in initial and final figures’

Quoting the VFD report he disclosed that in some states like Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, where the BJP or its allies did unexpectedly better, the difference between the initial and final turnout figures was 12.5, which is huge and needs answers from the ECI.

The senior Congress leader observed that while a difference of around 1 per cent is understandable, the massive difference of up to 12.5 per cent and in some places like Lakshadweep up to 25 per cent raises serious questions.

Quoting the same report, Dikshit said, it had specifically identified 79 constituencies that the BJP won, where the final voting percentage increased substantially from the initial figures given by the ECI.

‘Why so much time in releasing data?’

He also wondered why it took the ECI so much time to come out with the final voting percentage, while in the modern days of technological process, the figures are updated every two hours. He pointed out, that while for the first phase, it took ECI eleven days to come out with the final figures, for the second phase it took six days and for the subsequent phases 4 to 5 days.

Dikshit said this had raised questions not only on the credibility of the ECI but has also created doubts about the entire electoral process. He did not agree with the ECI explanation like communication and Internet issues for delay in coming out with the final poll percentage figures.

He observed that with the availability of sophisticated technology, there should not be so much variation between the initial and final figures.

He pointed out, that in 2019, there was only about one per cent difference in the initial and final voting figures and after five years, the average difference has gone up to 4.7 per cent.

Dikshit said, if the ECI does not come out with satisfactory answers and explanation, Congress may approach a higher forum for a probe into the matter.