Kharge could create anarchic situation, says EC; Cong hits back

NEW DELHI: Coming down heavily on Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Election Commission on Friday dismissed his allegations around voter turnout data as “baseless” and said it could create an “anarchic situation, besides doubts and disharmony”.
“Through innuendos and insinuations, the contents of the post tend to create disharmony in respect of the delicate space of election management, can plant doubts in the mind of voters and political parties…” EC said.
In a strongly worded rebuttal running into 21 pages, the poll panel said Kharge’s allegations in a letter to INDIA leaders and posted on social media was part of a “design in creating a false narrative” during the poll period and pointed out that no Congress candidates ever complained about the electoral roll, votes polled or filed any petition in the last three years based on any discrepancy in data. It said the charges were meant to “create confusion, misdirection and impediments in the conduct of free and fair polls”.

Refuting allegations of discrepancies point by point, EC detailed the process to argue that there was no room for interference in the procedure and nothing could go unnoticed by the candidates or their representatives.
It said political parties know the number of voters at every stage, with the booth-wise number available to candidates. Besides, it said, there was no scope for any deviation with the number of votes polled, which was recorded in Form 17C, and a signed copy was made available to candidates at the close of voting. Also, on the day of counting, the votes polled in the EVM were tallied with Form 17C in the presence of the candidates or their agents. It said no instance of deviation from the norms was flagged by any Congress candidate in any of the 283 seats that went to the polls in the first three phases.

“A trend of irresponsible statements attacking or attempting to degrade the credibility of elections in terms of men and material by a national political party is disconcerting,” EC said, while “advising” Kharge to refrain from such comments.
Responding to Kharge questioning the increase in turnout by around 5.5 percentage points in the first phase and about 5.7 percentage points in the second, and delay in publication of voter turnout data, EC said there was no delay and pointed out that the updated turnout data has always been higher than what was released on polling day. To back this, it shared the ‘factual matrix’ of figures from elections, beginning with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The commission accused Kharge of pushing a “biased narrative” under the guise of seeking clarifications and pointed to his party colleague Randeep Singh Surjewala’s attempts to spread rumours around the use of EVMs from South Africa during last year’s assembly elections in Karnataka.
“The commission has come to notice a design/pattern in creating a false narrative during election period, which unfortunately appears to be continued by your letter,” it said.
“As a senior parliamentarian, a very seasoned politician, with experience of 52 years in electoral politics and electoral process, and as the head of a prominent national political party, you must be aware that EC follows most transparent process of preparation of electoral roll and well designed and well tested participation of political parties/candidates at every stage of the process,” EC said.