There was a difference of nearly six lakh votes - between those recorded by EVMs and those counted, or not counted - in counting for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Association of Democratic Reforms, a special interest group working for electoral and political reforms, said this week.
The ADR has claimed a discrepancy of nearly 5.5 lakh votes - i.e., these many appear not to have been counted despite being recorded by the Electronic Voting Machines - in 362 constituencies. The ADR has also claimed around 35,000 more votes were counted than recorded by EVMs in 176 seats.
"The Election Commission's own figures show there is a difference between number of votes cast and those counted in 538 Lok Sabha constituencies," ADR founder Jagdeep Chhokar told NDTV.
"The Election Commission should explain, publicly, the reason for this difference in the number of votes counted and those polled in 538 Lok Sabha seats," he said, "This also happened during the 2019 election. We had filed a petition in the Supreme Court (no hearing has been held so far) then."
The Election Commission has not reacted so far.
The poll panel has, however, offered disgruntled candidates options to re-check vote-counts, including picking machines from any polling station in a seat and opting for a mock poll and VVPAT slip count.
READ | Poll Body Gives Candidates Choice On How To Check EVMs
Eight such applications have been received, the EC said last week.
According to data published by ADR on its website, in the former case (i.e., in which more votes were counted than polled) the discrepancy was between one and 3,811 votes in each constituency.
However, in each case the winning margin was significantly larger than that discrepancy.
Discrepancies between the votes cast and the votes counted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election: Multiple Perspectives#ADRReport: https://t.co/rSEYBMz5iq
— ADR India & MyNeta (@adrspeaks) July 30, 2024
To donate to ADR, click here: https://t.co/lK9cQpq1Ui#LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/slCVCCLu63
In the latter instances, in which fewer votes were counted than polled, the variance per seat was between one and 16,791. In these cases too there would likely have been no change in results.
There were, however, five seats in which the difference between winning margin and 'uncounted' votes is less than 1,300. These are three won by the BJP (in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan), one by the Congress (in Punjab), and another in UP won by the Samajwadi Party.
According to the ADR the only seats in which votes polled matched votes counted are Amreli in Gujarat (won by the BJP's Bharatbhai Manubhai Sutariya), Kerala's Attingal (the Congress' Adoor Prakash claimed victory), and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Daman and Diu, which were won by the Congress' Muhammed Hamdullah Sayeed and an independent candidate, respectively.
The result of one constituency - Surat in Gujarat - was declared without an election.
READ | How BJP Won In Surat Even Before Vote Counting Began
"EC Must Clarify"
Ex-Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi has asked the poll body to "clarify this at the earliest".
"It is the constitutional responsibility of the EC to conduct free and fair elections and, if someone points to discrepancies, then try to remove misunderstandings before questions arise," he told NDTV.
"The Election Commission should clarify if there is a discrepancy in the votes cast by voters in each parliamentary constituency and the counting of votes," he said.
Supreme Court Hearing On ADR Plea
The release of this data comes a day before the Supreme Court resumes hearing a petition by the ADR seeking release of all voter turnout numbers, including votes rejected for various reasons.
"... Supreme Court will hear our petition on this matter... we will present before the court the latest facts related to the Lok Sabha election, which have come out through affidavits. We will tell the court what happened in 2019 has happened again in 2024... and will say action needs to be taken."
READ | "In An Election, Hands Off!" Top Court Adjourns Voter Turnout Data Plea
Filed mid-election, the ADR had sought directions to the Election Commission to compile and publish this data on its website after each phase. The court, however, refused the plea, noting that doing so could "overburden" the poll panel during the election and that five of seven phases were over.
This was in May. The court said it would re-list the matter after the election and its vacation.
The Form 17C Row
The heart of that matter was the ADR seeking scanned copies of Form 17C - a record of votes cast at each polling station across the country - to be published after each phase. This document is key because voter turnout data in this form can be used to legally challenge an election result.
This data was sought by opposition politicians and activists after the EC delayed release of first and second phase voter turnout figures. When published, there were questions over differences in data.
NDTV Explains | Form 17C And Row Over Poll Panel's Voter Turnout Data
VVPAT Row
In April the ADR got a stern warning from the Supreme Court in a petition asking that all EVM votes be verified through paper slips generated by the VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail) machine.
READ | "Effort To Discredit India's Progress": Court Raps VVPAT Petitioners
The court said "blindly doubting a system can breed scepticism".
2024 Lok Sabha Election
The April-June election resulted in a narrow win for the BJP; Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party fell 32 seats short of an outright majority and needed support from National Democratic Alliance partners, specifically Nitish Kumar's JDU from Bihar and Chandrababu Naidu's TDP from Andhra Pradesh.
The BJP won 240 seats and the NDA 53. That was enough for the BJP to claim a third successive term for the party and for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The opposition, routed in the past two general elections, united behind the Congress this time and produced a much-improved score, winning 232 seats. The Congress won 99 on its own.
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