ECI is running away from transparency: Congress leader Niranjan

TPCC senior VP questions Election Commission's transparency, citing discrepancies in Lok Sabha polling figures and delay in announcement.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) senior vice president G Niranjan raised suspicion on the impartiality of the Election Commission of India (ECI) by questioning the delay in announcing the Lok Sabha polling figures and the mismatch between the figures released by it.

He said that the Election Commission uploads on its website the nomination papers, form 26, affidavits and personal details of the candidate and keeps it in public dominion. However, it is refusing to upload the voters’ turnout details in detail. Why is it running away from transparency?, he asked.

Mr. Niranjan said that the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) also filed a case in the Supreme Court on the delay and the mismatch of votes polled and the huge variations seen in the figures provided later. He said the ADR brought to the notice of the Supreme Court that there was a difference of about 1.1 crore votes after the first two phases.

He said the ADR report claimed that there was a difference of about 28,000 votes each in 379 constituencies. This difference is 69,000 in Andhra Pradesh, 57,000 in Kerala and 50,000 in Maharashtra. This shows there is a possibility of changing the EVMs as well.

He said that on election day, the presiding officer in each polling station would give the details of the total number of votes and votes polled in that polling station in Form 17-C. This form also bears the signature of the presiding officer and the signatures of the polling agents of the candidates. A copy of this will also be given to the agents of the candidates.

The Returning Officer of the Parliamentary Constituency prepares a booth-wise statement detailing the voter turn-out and submits it to the State Election Officer. If the copy submitted by the Returning Officer is also provided to the candidates, there is an opportunity to cross check with Form 17-C, he said.