ECI must clarify how voter turnout rose by over 7 per cent after polling ended: Patole

PTI, Nov 28, 2024, 5:24 PM IST

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Thursday demanded that the ECI clarify the rise in voter turnout by over 7 per cent after polling for the assembly elections ended on November 20 evening.

Addressing a press conference here, Patole said the “discrepancies” in polling figures put a question mark on the functioning of the Election Commission of India.

Patole claimed that the voting percentage was 58.22 at 5 pm but rose by 7.83 percentage points at 11.30 pm.

The ECI must clarify this “discrepancy” as it puts a question mark on transparency, he said.

“This is theft of people’s vote. We will seek legal recourse and hit the streets to make people aware,” Patole said.

After its crushing defeat in the assembly elections, many leaders from the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have cast aspersions on ECI’s voting process.

Patole said the ECI should publish photographs of those booths where polling continued till 11.30 pm. According to the ECI, the final turnout in Maharashtra polls was 66.05 per cent as per EVM votes, up from 61.1 per cent in 2019.

It is not who won or who lost, Patole said, adding that his party wanted to save democracy.

In the Maharashtra elections, whose results were announced on November 23, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance scripted a stunning victory by winning 230 seats in the 288-member House.

Recovering from its Lok Sabha elections losses, the BJP bagged 132 constituencies, the highest among all constituents of the Mahayuti. Its allies Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP bagged 57 and 41 seats, respectively.

The Congress-led MVA suffered a setback. The grand old party registered one of its worst performances in the state polls winning only 16 seats. Sharad Pawar’s NCP(SP) got just 10 seats, whereas Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) won 20 seats.

In his Sakoli constituency in the Bhandara district, Patole scraped through with just 208 votes to defeat his nearest rival Avinash Brahmankar of the BJP.