Congress asks EC to make Maharashtra election data public

Congress urges Election Commission for Maharashtra election data transparency, highlighting discrepancies in voter enrollment and votes polled.

The Congress on Tuesday (December 10, 2024) urged the Election Commission to make public, data related to the recent Maharashtra Assembly election, as agreed at an earlier meeting. The party has sought Assembly-wise voter rolls and booth-wise result sheets for both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State.

In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, the chairperson of the Congress’s Data Analytics Department, Praveen Chakravarty, sought all the data to be provided in Excel sheets.

The letter reiterated that 40 lakh new voters were enrolled and 75 lakh extra votes polled in the Assembly election compared with the Lok Sabha election held just six months ago.

“This increase of 4.3% in voters enrolled and 13% in votes polled is unusually high compared to previous election cycles in Maharashtra or other States under similar election cycles,” the party said.

“We had also presented a list of 118 constituencies in Maharashtra where 25,000 or more extra votes were cast versus Lok Sabha elections and the BJP alliance had won 102 in the Vidhan Sabha versus just 58 in the Lok Sabha election,” it said.

A delegation of Congress leaders had met the EC on December 3 and flagged “discrepancies” in the Maharashtra Assembly polls.

“As agreed in that meeting, we await further data from the Commission”, the letter read.