Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday wrote a letter to the leaders of the INDIA bloc, highlighting the discrepancies in the voting data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and non-publishing of registered voters.
He urged all alliance partners to "collectively, unitedly and unequivocally" raise their voices against the discrepancies.
Kharge said that the credibility of the ECI was at an "all-time low" and it was in the public domain how the ECI, perhaps for the first time in history, delayed the release of the final voting percentages of the First and Second phases of the Lok Sabha elections.
He said, "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. On 30th April 2024, the Election Commission released the final voter turnout data for the first 2 phases of elections for the 2024 Lok Sabha. The data was released 11 days after the first phase of polling (19th April 2024) and 4 days after the Second Phase (26th April 2024). In this regard our first question for the Election Commission is - Why did the Commission delay the release of voter turnout data?"
He wrote in his letter that for the first phase (102 seats), "the Commission said that as of 7 p.m. on 19.04.2024, the estimated voter turnout was around 60 per cent, while similarly for the second phase (88 Seats), the estimated voter turnout was around 60.96 per cent. Why is it that on 20.04.2024, the Commission’s projected voter turnout for the First Phase was increased to 65.5% and on 27.04.2024, for the Second Phase the voter turnout data was 66.7%? Finally, on 30.04.2024, the figures were confirmed at 66.14% for the First Phase and 66.71% for the Second Phase?"
The Congress president said, "In this context, I would urge all of you that we must collectively, unitedly and unequivocally raise our voice against such discrepancies, for our only objective is to protect the culture of a vibrant Democracy and the Constitution."