West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed concerns over the revised final figures for the first two phases of Lok Sabha elections, stating that the sudden increase in poll percentage is ‘disturbing’. Addressing a rally at Farakka in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, the Trinamool Congress supremo raised ‘serious apprehensions about the credibility of EVMs’.
On Tuesday, April 30, the election commission released the voter turnout of the first two phases of polling, which were held on April 19 and April 26, respectively. ‘The EC gave a figure of polling percentage immediately after the elections. But yesterday, I came to know about the sudden jump in final voter turnout by nearly 5.75 per cent, which is worrying,’ Banerjee said according to newswire.
She also alleged that the rise in voting percentage was observed in areas where voting was not in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). ‘There are lots of doubts, and the commission must address it,’ she said.
The TMC chief also demanded that the election commission make public the details of EVM makers.
Earlier on Tuesday, CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury also raised concerns over the revised voter turnout. He said that the the final voter turnout figures were substantially higher than the initial figures. ‘But why are the absolute numbers of voters in each Parliamentary constituency not put out? Percentages are meaningless unless this figure is known,’ Yechury said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
He claimed that the apprehensions of manipulation of results continue as total voter numbers can be altered at the time of counting. ‘Total number of voters in each constituency was always available on ECI website till 2014! ECI must be transparent & put out this data,’ the CPI(M) leader said.
In a post on X, Congress General Secretary of Communication Jairam Ramesh said that the number of registered voters per Lok Sabha and the assembly constituencies included in that Lok Sabha constituency have not been published along with the turnout data by the ECI, as is usually done. He said that the breakup of the number of votes and not just the vote percentage – as is typically made available by the ECI – is still not available.
