In a point-wise rebuttal to the allegations levelled by Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge regarding the discrepancies in the voting data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on 6 May, the poll body has stated that his letter was in “continuance of a design/pattern towards a false narrative” while stating that ECI had come across “a trend of irresponsible statements attacking or attempting to degrade the credibility of the elections’.
In an unprecedentedly strong response, the ECI in its reply to Kharge on Friday, issued a point-wise rebuttal to every claims that were made by Kharge in his letter while charging him of vitiating the constitutionally mandated work of the ECI and create disharmony in election management through innuendos and insinuations which can plant doubts in the mind of voters and political parties and create an anarchic situation.
It has asked Kharge to exercise caution and refrain from making such allegations and statements.
The ECI in its reply, spread across 21 pages and eight annexures, has said that contrary to Kharge’s claims, polling data is available in real-time and therefore Congress charge that its release was delayed is wrong. To strengthen its arguments, the ECI has shared newspaper reports and other related data showing how media had reported voter turnout across India as it was being updated on the “Voter turnout” app.
The ECI, further refuting the charges levelled by Kharge, stated that in reality and contrary to what the Congress leader claimed in his letter, no actual contesting candidate of Congress or of INDIA bloc has raised the issue either of unavailability of final polling data (through Form 17C) or the electoral rolls.
The ECI further referred to a letter that it had sent to Congress leader Randeep Surjewala on similar allegations that were raised by him against the ECI during the Karnataka elections in 2023 while stating that EVM machines were brought from South Africa . ECI had warned Surjewala to exercise due caution and not to fall for misleading rumours from dubious and frivolous sources.
On 6 May, after the two phases of polling had taken place and one day before the third phase seats were to go to poll, Kharge wrote a letter to the leaders of I.N.D.I.A bloc parties, regarding the ‘discrepancies’ in the voting data released by Election Commission of India and non-publishing of registered voters.
Kharge, in his letter, wrote that the credibility of the ECI is at an all time low.
“It is in public domain on how the ECI, perhaps for the first time in history, delayed the release of the final voting percentages of the First and Second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Additionally, it is extremely disconcerting to know, through various media reports, that even the final registered voters list from the Third phase onwards is also not released.
All these developments cast a dark shadow on the functioning of the Election Commission of India. The inordinate delay in the release of the final voting percentages for the First and Second phases raises serious doubts on the quality of data. In my electoral life of 52 years, I have never witnessed such a high increment of voting percentages, in the final published data, that we now assume came from the later hours of voting on the polling days”, he said in the letter which the party president also shared on social media platform, ‘ X’.