Election Commission On Saturday, Congress’ allegations of discrepancies between poll data and draft voter rolls of the last Maharashtra Assembly elections were rejected.

In a letter addressed to Congress, the poll panel said a transparent election process was followed at every stage of the elections with the participation of all competing parties, their candidates and representatives.

The poll panel also invited a delegation from the party on December 3 to discuss its concerns further.

This came a day after the Congress. sent A memorandum submitted to the Election Commission alleging that there were “serious and egregious inconsistencies” in the data regarding the voting and counting processes of Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

This included concerns over allegations that “voters were arbitrarily deleted and then added” from the final voter lists of more than 10,000 voters in each constituency.

“With this uncontrolled and arbitrary practice of deletion and consequent addition of voters, the state of Maharashtra has witnessed an unprecedented surge in the addition of an estimated 47 lakh voters in the electoral roll between July 2024 and November 2024,” the party said in its memorandum. .

The ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde and the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Ajit Pawar, won 47 of the 50 Assembly seats, of which there was an “average” number of seats, the report added. 50,000 voter increase”.

Generally, Mahayuti On November 23, it won 230 seats in the 288-member Parliament. BJP was the only major party with 132 seats. While Shinde Sena won 57 seats, Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party faction won in 41 constituencies.

Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising Sharad Pawar and Congress-led Nationalist Congress Party faction Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), won 46 seats.

In its memorandum submitted on Friday, the Congress also sought an explanation from the Election Commission on the “inexplicable increase” in voter percentages from 5 pm to the final voter percentage declared by the poll panel at 11.30 pm on the polling day.

According to Election Commission data, voter turnout was reported to be 58.22% as of 5 pm on November 20, the voting day in Maharashtra. At 23.30 on the same day, participation increased to 65.02 percent and reached 66.05 percent as of November 21.

“The said discrepancy raises several questions regarding the way the election process was conducted in the state of Maharashtra,” the party said. “From a common sense perspective, casting more than 70 lakh votes at the closing hour of polling is unreasonable and unheard of in election history.”

The Congress has asked the Election Commission to grant it an “immediate face-to-face meeting” to discuss its grievances in detail.

The poll panel on Saturday told the Congress that copies of the draft electoral rolls were provided to all parties before the elections and that the verification process involved them at every stage.

Regarding allegations regarding voter turnout data, the Electoral Commission said the gap in the 5pm poll data and final turnout figures was due to procedural priorities as presiding officers performed multiple legal duties near the end of voting before updating turnout data. .

Congress’ state chief at a press conference on Thursday Nana Patole He also accused the Election Commission of falsifying voter data and asked how voter turnout increased by 7.8 percent after the voting period ended.

In response to the allegations, the Electoral Commission said on social media: increase in voter turnout It was not unusual after voting hours and followed standard procedures.