In recent weeks, opposition parties including Congress, CPM, and Trinamool Congress have written to the EC, criticizing the delay in releasing the final voter turnout.
With the Election Commission of India (ECI) yet to release the actual voter numbers for the Lok Sabha elections conducted in the five phases, attention is now squarely focused on the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to address the matter on May 24th.
Last week, the SC issued a notice to the EC regarding an application filed by the NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), which called for the publication of the absolute number of votes from all polling stations in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The NGO also demanded that the ECI disclose the number of votes polled within 48 hours of polling on its website.
Speaking to this newspaper, Jagdeep S. Chhokar, founder of ADR, expressed his anticipation for the SC hearing on the 24th. "In our application, we sought a direction to the EC to upload scanned copies of Form 17C, which records the number of votes polled in a booth, soon after the elections. If the SC directs the ECI to upload these forms, it will have to include the copies from previous and future phases as well," he said. The SC is hearing the petition on the eve of the sixth phase of polling, with the seventh and final phase set for June 1. In 2019, ADR filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into alleged discrepancies between voter turnout and the number of votes counted in 347 constituencies during the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Chhokar noted that in 2019, the ECI had released absolute numbers for gender-wise turnout in the four-phase Lok Sabha elections. However, the EC later withdrew the 2019 data from their website after discrepancies were highlighted between voter turnout and the number of votes counted in at least 347 constituencies.
In recent weeks, opposition parties including Congress, CPM, and Trinamool Congress have written to the EC, criticizing the delay in releasing the final voter turnout and demanding the publication of the total number of voters in each parliamentary constituency.
Congress has raised concerns over the significant difference between real-time voter turnout data and the final figures released by the Election Commission, stating that voters are alarmed by the “strange goings-on” in the poll body.
Congress leader and head of the media and publicity department, Pawan Khera, highlighted that the difference amounts to around 1.7 crore votes, which he termed unprecedented. “Voters are worried about the strange occurrences in the EC during the four phases of voting. First, the Election Commission takes 10-11 days to release the final voting figures, and then there is a discrepancy of 1.7 crore votes between the real-time data and the final figures,” Khera said.
AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh added, “This overall difference of 1.07 crore votes translates to an increase of 28,000 votes in each Lok Sabha seat. This is significant.” He further questioned, “The discrepancy is greatest in states where the BJP is expected to lose many seats. What is happening?” Voting has been completed in 428 seats across twenty-five states in the five phases so far.
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 "Lok Sabha Elections 2024: SC to hear plea on actual voter numbers today, EC under scrutiny")
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