Mallikarjun Kharge writes to INDIA bloc leaders over ‘discrepancies’ in voter turnout

NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has written to leaders of INDI Alliance partners over the “inordinate delay” in releasing final turnout and the discrepancies found in the data.

In a post on social media platform X, party general secretary K C Venugopal wrote, “INC President Mallikarjun Kharge has written to leaders of INDIA alliance partners regarding the concerning attitude of the Election Commission of India. The inordinate delay in releasing final voter turnout figures and the discrepancies found in that data raises severe doubts about the free and fair nature of these elections”.

“This is not an ordinary election, it is a fight to ensure our democracy and constitution survive. In this context, it is our collective duty to raise our voices to defend democracy and hold the ECI accountable so that it conducts its affairs responsibly”, he further said in a post on X.

https://twitter.com/kharge/status/1787692196126130303

On May 2, Congress criticized the Election Commission for the delay in sharing the data of the overall turnout of phases 1 and 2 in the Lok Sabha elections, saying that the delay by the apex poll body was “completely unacceptable”.

Congress’ general secretary of communication Jairam Ramesh said the number of registered voters per Lok Sabha and the assembly constituencies included in that Lok Sabha constituency have not been published along with the turnout data by the ECI, as is usually done. “The breakup of the number of votes and not just the vote percentage — as is typically made available by the ECI — is still not available”, he said.

More than 10 days after Phase 1 and four days after Phase 2 of polling for the ongoing general elections, the Election Commission of India (EC) released the final turnout figures for the two rounds on April 30. While Phase 1 saw a turnout of 66.14 per cent, for Phase 2, it was 66.7 per cent, a drop of just under 4 percentage points for the first phase and under 3 percentage points for the second phase compared to the 2019 elections.

On April 20, a day after the first phase of voting in 102 seats, the Commission had pegged voting at 65.5 per cent and on April 27, sources in EC had indicated a turnout of 66.7 per cent for the second phase comprising 88 seats.

However, the poll body did not release the total number of voters in each constituency. The Opposition parties, which had earlier in the day raised this issue majorly on social media platforms, pointed this out after the EC released the data.

The final turnout is a marginal upward revision of less than one percentage point from the provisional figures shared by the EC. (ANI)