New Delhi: Amid allegations of irregularities in the recently-concluded Maharashtra assembly elections, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer has refuted the accusations about a sudden surge in voter data and said that no mass deletion of voters was conducted in any constituency.
In an interview with The Hindu, Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam has acknowledged that in almost every district, the Election Commission has received requests from at least one or two candidates for the verification of the burnt memory chips in the EVMs.
The EC has also received a representation claiming mass addition and mass deletion of voters, and that the voting percentages are higher, said Chockalingam.
Earlier, the Maharashtra leadership of the Congress on Friday (November 29) had submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission of India (ECI) raising concerns over alleged arbitrary deletion and addition of voters prior to the elections and a sharp increase in voter turnout figures from 5:30 pm to 11:30 pm on the day of polling.
“There is no sudden surge. As far as the 5 p.m. data is concerned, it is being compared to Jharkhand, where voting ends earlier, and where people historically prefer to vote earlier in the day. Maharashtra is a big State. It has 1 lakh polling booths. It is being said that 76 lakh people voted between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. This means, on an average, 76 persons per booth voting,” said Chockalingam, responding to the allegations.
“If you look into the overall voting capacity through the day, 60-70 people vote every hour. It is a regular course. There is no surge. It is a normal growth if it can be shown on a graph. If we compare it with 2019, it is similar. In Maharashtra, due to higher urbanisation, people want to vote in the evening. The numbers are as per the historical trend, as per the day’s trend,” he added.
Chockalingam added that no mass deletions are conducted in a voting year and also refuted allegations that EVMs have been brought from Gujarat and have been manipulated there.
