ECI's state CEO mum on queries on Maha Assembly polling process, claims Prakash Ambedkar

Mumbai, Dec 9 (IANS) The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has claimed that it has not yet received any response from the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer on a set of questions about the polling processes in the November 2024 state Assembly elections, here on Monday.

The party’s Chief Spokesperson Siddharth Mokle said that the 2-page letter, sent to the CEO by VBA President Prakash Ambedkar last Friday (December 6), has not elicited any reply from the ECI – CEO S. Chokalingam so far.

Reiterating his letter contents in a video statement on Monday (December 9), Ambedkar said it has raised several issues concerning the Assembly polls that have created misgivings in public minds. “A total of 75 lakh votes were cast after evening (November 20). The official voting time was till 6 p.m. Are the tokens distributed at each (polling) booth after 6 pm? If they were distributed, then how many?” demanded Ambedkar, who is the grandson of the Chief Architect of the Indian Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

Seeking details of each constituency along with visual evidence of each polling station, the VBA chief sought to know whether videography was carried out after 6 p.m. at all the locations or not. The VBA has asked for information on priority about which officials had distributed the tokens to the voters after 6 p.m. that day.

Ambedkar also asked the CEO about the time it takes for a voter to cast his/her/their votes, and whether the District Election Officer/Returning Officer and booth Supervisors had recorded the number of votes polled between 5-6 p.m. on November 20. “I wrote to the ECO on Friday… to raise the serious concern of the variation in the provisional voter turnout and the final data in the recent state Vidhan Sabha elections. It is important that our questions are answered and our concerns are addressed 'as they will appreciate the depreciated and shaken faith in the electoral process’ and the ECI’s conduct,” said Ambedkar.

Last month’s elections, which gave an unprecedented landslide victory to the ruling MahaYuti alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party has resulted in a barrage of questions and suspicions, besides around 22 requests for re-counting of votes by candidates from different parties.

Against the MahaYuti’s 230 seats, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was practically erased with 46 seats, plus the remaining seats going to independents/smaller parties in the 288-member Assembly.

The MVA allies Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-Nationalist Congress Party (SP), plus VBA, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Samajwadi Party and others have protested at what they feel is the one-sided results, pointing accusing fingers at the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for their debacle.

At least three MVA winners have said they are ready to quit as MLAs and fight elections again provided the ECI conducts it on ballot paper. They are -- state Congress President Nana F. Patole from Sakoli (Bhandara), SS (UBT)’s Sunil Raut from Vikhroli (Mumbai) and NCP (SP)’s Uttamrao S. Jankar from Malshiras (Solapur).

Simultaneously, several villages in the state, starting with Markadwadi (Solapur) have demanded ‘mock paper ballot voting’ to clear their apprehensions, and multiple anti-EVM drives have been launched. Markadwadi, where the local authorities clamped down on the villagers who were preparing for a ‘mock ballot paper poll’ on December 3 -- besides villages in Akola and others -- have attracted national attention of the anti-EVM campaign.

NCP (SP) Sharad Pawar visited Markadwadi on Sunday (December 8), Congress’ Patole will go there on Tuesday (December 10), SS (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray is likely to make a trip there soon, while Congress’ Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is planning a padyatra in the village in the next fortnight.

The ECI has steadfastly maintained that there was nothing wrong while the MahaYuti has ridiculed the MVA for acting spoilsports after they were decisively vanquished in the state elections.