Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024: State Congress chief writes to ECI, alleges 'huge scam in voting percentage'

Accusing the Election Commission of India ECI of tampering with the voter data in the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 state Congress chief Nana Patole on Friday wrote to the poll body seeking to know how the turnout increased by 783 percentage points after the official polling time had endedAccording to news agency ANI Patole in a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer has raised questions over electronic voting machines EVMs and said that public sentiment has become extremely intense as there is a huge scam in the percentage of votes polled in the assembly electionsDoubts are being raised from many levels on the 783 per cent increase in votes Looking at the vote figures announced by ECI there must have been long queues at the polling stations after 5 pm on the day of voting In how many constituencies in the state were there long queues of voters after 5 pm Patole questioned in his letter to the apex poll body demanding the ECI to announce evidence including video footage suggesting the surgeAccording to the official figures released by the Election Commission 652 per cent voting was done till 1130 pm on November 20 The official figures released on the next day ie on November 21 at 3 pm were 6605 per cent Where did the 103 per cent discrepancy in the figures officially released by the Election Commission itself come from How did a whopping nine lakh ninetynine thousand and three hundred and fifty nine votes increase in a single day Considering the discrepancy in the percentage of votes this seems serious and worrying If there are doubts in the minds of the public about this increase in votes it is the duty of the Election Commission to dispel them The Election Commission itself should come forward and clarify its position with evidence and give a satisfactory answer to the doubts in the minds of the public Patole added in the letterSpeaking to ANI he said that ECI must explain how such a surge was possibleThe Election Commission at 5 pm 20th November when they showed the voting percentage it was 58 per cent at 1159 pm the number was 652 per cent so the question is there would have long queuewhere were those long queues we have sought such videos from Election Commission Next day 3 pm they tweeted that 665 per cent voting took place which means by next day they increased the voting percentage by 13 per centwe want to ask Election Commission where did this voting happen he added76 lakh more voters polled in state electionsThe opposition has raised questions over EVMs mentioning the rise in voting percentage in comparison to the parliamentary elections which were held months agoNationalist Congress Party SP leader Rohit Pawar has also alleged that there has been a huge rise in the voting percentage in the Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024In comparison to parliamentary elections 76 lakh more voters have voted in assembly elections We need to investigate that There are a lot of complaints against EVMs Pawar saidEarlier Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had demanded the replacement of EVMs with ballot papers alleging that votes from SC Scheduled Caste ST Scheduled Tribe OBC Other Backward Classes and poor communities are being wastedThe Maha Vikas Aghadi mdash comprising the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray NCP Sharadchandra Pawar and the Congress mdash won just 46 seatsThe Bharatiya Janata Party BJP emerged as the biggest winner securing 132 seats in the 288member Maharashtra Assembly while its allies mdash the Eknath Shindeled Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawars NCP mdash won 57 and 41 seats respectively The Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 were held on November 20 and the results were declared three days laterWith ANI inputs