In Madhya Pradesh, An Eleventh-Hour Controversy Over Postal Ballot

The Madhya Pradesh Congress has accused the administration officials in Balaghat of opening postal ballots ahead of counting, due on December 3. State Congress chief Kamal Nath posted on X, formerly Twitter, that a video of postal ballots being opened before counting has surfaced in the Balaghat district. 

The Congress, he wrote, has complained to the Election Commission about the possibility of tampering. 

"This is a very serious matter. Immediate action should be taken against the culprits. I appeal to the Congress workers to remain vigilant and not allow any disturbance to happen," read a rough translation of his post in Hindi. 

The video was initially posted by the state Congress and it was widely circulated. It shows officials sorting postal ballots inside a strong-room. Some men are heard contending that they "should have been informed". 

The party is alleging that the District Collector got the strong-room opened and then other officials opened the boxes of postal ballots without informing the candidates.  

A local leader of the same opposition party Shafqhat Khan, however, said in Balaghat that there was confusion about the entire matter, as the on duty staff couldn't give our party representative satisfactory reply about the entire matter. But the confusion about the postal ballots sorting process was cleared later by the local SDM.

The Divisional commissioner has suspended the nodal officer of postal ballots in Balaghat, sources said. 

Shortly after the controversy, local magistrate Gopal Soni told reporters that it was a routine procedure to keep ETPBS (Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System) and sort them into "bundles of 50".  The whole process takes place under CCTV cameras and there are guards at the door, he said. 

"One room at the local tehsil office has been designated as the strong room for postal ballots, where not only the postal ballots of the Balaghat assembly seats are stored safely under CCTV surveillance, but the postal ballots of the other 5 assembly segments of Balaghat district too are stored there only. Since we daily get Electronically transmitted postal ballot systems (ETPBS), hence the strong room was opened in presence of all the political parties' representatives and subsequently the postal ballots were sorted on the basis of individual assembly seats and then arranged in bundles of 50 ballots each. Entire process has been done in presence of representatives of every party."

The Congress is hoping to come back to power in the elections that took place on November 17.  The Congress government formed after the 2018 elections had collapse two years later after its senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the BJP with more than 20 loyalist MLAs.  

The Congress sees this election is a chance for revenge and proving once again that they and not the BJP, are the people's choice.   

The BJP, which has been mostly ruling the state since 2004, has contested under the banner of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party claims the election will expose the Congress's pretensions.