The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) has expressed serious concern over unusual increase in the voting percentage in a few Lok Sabha constituencies in the recently-concluded elections, and has sought clarification from the Chief Electoral Officer, Rajat Kumar, on the issue.
The TPCC election coordination committee has alleged that the voting percentage in Nizamabad increased by 14.13% after 5 p.m., while it rose by 7.32% in Khammam and 7.06% in Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency.
On the other hand, the voting percentage in Chevella Lok Sabha constituency dropped by 0.58% after the closing hours of the poll. “We have decided to make a detailed study of the voting pattern in a few Parliamentary constituencies.
This can also help the Election Commission,” said coordination committee chairman M. Shashidhar Reddy.
In a letter addressed to the CEO, he wanted the election authority to furnish information relating to votes polled in the four constituencies by 5 p.m./6 p.m. on the polling day as also the polling station-wise final record of votes polled in these constituencies as reported by the ROs/CEO the next day.
The copies of the additional report submitted to the constituency observer/returning officer by the presiding officers of all the polling stations should also be provided.
In addition, the election authority should provide a copy of video recording inside the polling stations of all the four constituencies so that the presence of the voters could be verified.
Besides, Mr. Reddy wanted constituency-wise details of the time at which the polling was finally closed and the figures relating to the polling percentages at 5 p.m. in the previous elections held in 2004, 2009 and 2014.
He recalled that the Assembly elections in December too witnessed significant rise in voting after 5 p.m. from the initial estimate of 67% to 73.2%.
The average percentage of votes polled in all the 17 constituencies was 59.06% by 5 p.m. on April 11, while the average percentage of votes at the end of polling was 64.32%, marking an overall increase of 5.26%.
He alleged that the TRS and its president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had a long history of attempts to subvert the democratic process as could be seen from the directives given to the CEO in 2015 to delete the names of 15 lakh voters in the 24 Assembly constituencies under the GHMC limits.
“Fully aware of the tactics of the TRS party and the role of EC in extending support to it, we are duty bound to start serious deliberations to understand if something went wrong that resulted in such abnormal increase in the percentage of votes polled after 5 p.m.,” he said.
