New Delhi, Aug 3 (UNI) Congress on Saturday alleged that the BJP won several seats in the General Elections by voter turnout manipulation, and sought clarification from the Election Commission of India (ECI) over ‘substantial difference in the preliminary and the final figures’.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, party leader Sandeep Dikshit, quoting a report by the ‘Vote for Democracy’ (VFD), said that while the overall difference in the voter turnout between what the ECI said initially and what figures it gave finally, was on average 4.7 percent, it counted to about five crore votes nationally.
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 one percent is understandable, the massive difference up to 12.5 percent and, in some places like Lakshadweep, up to 25 percent 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.
He also wondered why it took the ECI so much time to come up with the final voting percentage, while in the modern days of technological processes, the figures are updated every two hours.
Dikshit said, this had raised questions not only about the credibility of the ECI but also about the entire electoral process.
He pointed out that in 2019, there was only about a one percent difference in the initial and final voting figures, and after five years, the average difference has gone up to 4.7 percent.
Dikshit said, if the ECI does not come out with satisfactory answers and explanations, the Congress may approach a higher forum for a probe into the matter.
