Congress gets EC invite over Maha poll results

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday asserted that all poll procedures it followed in Maharashtra were transparent and assured that it would review all legitimate concerns flagged by the Congress, which alleged serious inconsistencies.

In its interim response to the party, the poll authority invited a Congress delegation on December 3 to discuss concerns expressed by it. The Congress on Friday raised with the Election Commission "serious and grave inconsistencies" which it said were being revealed in the data relating to the polling and counting processes for the recently-concluded Maharashtra Assembly polls and sought an in-person hearing to present relevant evidence.

In the response, the EC reiterated that the process was transparent with the involvement of candidates or their agents at every stage. The commission also assured of a review of the Congress' legitimate concerns and a written response after hearing the party's delegation in person. It asserted that a transparent electoral roll updation process was undertaken with the involvement of all political parties. Responding to the issue regarding the voter turnout data, the EC asserted that there was no discrepancy in it and the data was available with all candidates polling station-wise and is verifiable.

The gap in the 5 pm polling data and the final voter turnout was due to procedural priorities, as presiding officers perform multiple statutory duties near the close of polling before updating the voter turnout data. As an additional disclosure measure, an EC press note at around 11:45 pm was introduced during the 2024 Lok Sabha election and followed subsequently during all assembly polls thereafter, the poll body told the Congress. Eknath Shinde is under pressure from a group of Shiv Sena leaders who think he should not become a deputy CM, having been the chief minister for more than two years. Another group of party leaders insists that he must be part of the new government.

The Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained power with a landslide victory in the assembly elections, the results of which were annou nced on November 23. While the simple majority figure in the 288-member House is 145, the BJP alone bagged 132 seats, followed by Shiv Sena with 57 and NCP with 41 seats.