‘Serious inconsistencies’: Congress writes to EC over Maharashtra turnout data, seeks meeting | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday wrote a letter to the Election Commission of India, expressing concern over “serious inconsistencies” regarding data related to the voting and counting processes of the recently concluded elections in Maharashtra. She has requested an in-person hearing to address these issues.
It said there had been “arbitrary removal of voters and subsequent addition of more than 10,000 voters in each constituency from the final electoral rolls”.
The Congress, in its letter to the EC, also said that “questions regarding Maharashtra voter data have also been raised by a former Chief Election Commissioner”.
The grand old party also said there was an “inexplicable increase” in turnout between 5pm and the final voter percentage announced by the EC at 11.30pm on election day.
“With this exercise of uncontrolled and arbitrary removal and consequent addition of voters, the State of Maharashtra witnessed an unprecedented increase of an estimated 47 Lakh voters added to the electoral roll between July 2024 and November 2024,” the statement said .

“It is significant to note that out of the 50 Assembly constituencies, where there was an average increase of 50,000 voters, the ruling regime and its allies achieved victory in 47 of these constituencies,” it added.
Regarding the rise in voters, the Congress said the data provided by the poll body showed that the voter turnout in Maharashtra was 58.22% at 5 pm, which increased to 65.02% later on the same day at 11.30 pm.
Moreover, the final reported turnout was 66.05%, just hours before counting began. The data showed that around 76 lakh votes were cast between 5 pm and 6 pm on November 21, 2024, the letter said.
The letter dated November 29 was submitted by Nana Patole, Mukul Wasnik and Ramesh Chennithala.
This comes after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge expressed concern over the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and called for their replacement with ballot papers. “We don’t want EVMs, we want ballot papers,” he had said.
In the recently concluded assembly elections in the state, Mahayuti led by the BJP won 230 out of 288 seats, with the BJP winning 132, Shiv Sena 57 and the NCP 41. The MVA, on the other hand, only managed to win 46 seats. with Congress contributing only 16 to the total.