The fate of over 8,000 candidates in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 will be decided on June 4 when the counting of votes takes place amid tight security in States like West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
Even as he said that the Election Commission (EC) had a “robust” mechanism in place for the counting process, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on June 3 came down heavily on the Opposition parties for making allegations that Returning Officers and District Magistrates (DMs) were influenced to vitiate the poll process. The CEC dared them to share evidence of the claims made and alleged that a “fake narrative” was being set in the country about the electoral process.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and S.S. Sandhu, Mr. Kumar said the Opposition should also tell the poll body about those trying to influence the process before the counting of votes begins. “You cannot spread a rumor and bring everyone under a cloud of suspicion”.
The claim had been made by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh who had said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had been calling DMs and Collectors and indulging in “blatant and brazen” intimidation. The DMs and Collectors are the Returning Officers of their respective districts during an election.
The CEC said that there had been a consistent effort to create a fake and mischievous narrative around the poll process which the EC was unable to counter. “We accept our failure”. He claimed that there was a pattern, and everyone fell for it. Mr. Kumar claimed that the poll body had expected that these attacks would come from outside the country. “We had made the arrangements. But this happened from within only,” he said, taking a dig at the Opposition parties.
The CEC said that a total of 64.2 crore voters, who included 31.2 crore women, had exercised their franchise in these polls, which was the highest in the world. Over 68,000 monitoring teams and 1.5 crore polling and security personnel were involved in the electoral exercise.
On preparations made for counting, Mr. Kumar said: “There is a very robust system. There are around 10.5 lakh booths. Each booth will have 14 tables. There are observers and micro-observers. Nearly, 70-80 lakh people are involved in the process.”
EC sources told The Hindu that the commission had provided Central forces to many States to prevent any post-poll violence, based on assessment provided by the Central observers in these States. Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are the two States which have been provided with security forces for 15 days from the day of counting. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh have been provided with security forces for two days after counting.
On another Opposition demand that postal ballots should be counted first, the CEC said the postal ballot scheme rule was formed in 1964. “There are not many postal ballots then. For an inclusive election, it is necessary that we extend this facility to senior citizens and people with disability.”
“Rules clearly state [Rule 54A] that postal ballot count will start first. In all centres in the country it will start first, no doubt about it. After half-an-hour we start the EVM count. So, there are three countings which are happening simultaneously — it happened in the 2019 elections, it happened in all the Assembly polls held thereafter. It happened yesterday [on Sunday] also in case of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim Assembly [vote count]. We can’t change anything mid-course. Why can’t we change, because it is compliant with the rules,” Mr. Kumar said.
The CEC also took a dig at social media memes which called Election Commissioners ‘Laapataa Gentlemen’. “We were always here, never went missing”. He said the commission would begin the process of Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir very soon based on the highest voter turnout in four decades at 58.58% overall, and 51.05% in the Valley there in the Lok Sabha polls.
