'Undermining of polls, safety of electoral process': Here are issues BJP raised with Election Commission ahead of counting of votes

Ahead of the counting of votes on Tuesday (June 4), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has appealed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take cognisance of efforts to undermine elections and ensure the safety of the electoral process.

The weeks-long Lok Sabha elections concluded on Saturday (June 1) with the seventh and final phase of voting. The first phase of voting was held on April 19.

After a delegation of the BJP led by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met the ECI, BJP leader and Union minister Piyush Goyal said that the party raised four issues with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners.

Goyal said the meeting was to “demand and urge the Election Commission to take four important steps”.

Listing the requests, Goyal said, “One, we have requested the Election Commission to ensure that every official engaged in the counting process is fully conversant with the minutest details of the prescribed process and engage diligently with all Election Commission of India’s counting protocols, so there can be no deviation whatsoever from what has been provided.

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“Two, to ensure the safety and security of the electoral process during the counting and announcement of results, including enhanced monitoring and security measures to prevent any violence and attempts at unrest.

“Three, to take cognisance of the systematic attempts to undermine the electoral process and take stringent action against those responsible.

“Four, issue a public statement affirming the integrity of electoral process and warning against any attempts to disrupt the democratic process.”

#WATCH | Union Minister Piyush Goyal says, " Today a delegation of BJP led by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met with the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners to demand and urge them to take 4 important steps. One is that we have requested EC every… pic.twitter.com/NfiDbD7jel

— ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2024

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BJP has accused Congress of being part of electoral interference

Previously, the BJP has accused the Opposition party Congress of being in league with a foreign power to raise questions about Indian elections.

After the Congress party’s initial decision to boycott discussions on exit polls on news channels, BJP National Spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said the intention of the boycott was to raise questions at the electoral process and it was part of a “game plan”.

“I don’t think this is an input that has come out of the AICC [All India Congress Committee] headquarters. This is something that has come out of some other country which wants to interfere with our elections and electoral process…It’s a toolkit to ensure that questions will be raised on the electoral process and the Election Commission,” said Vadakkan, as per PTI.

VIDEO | Lok Sabha Election 2024: “I have been the National Media Secretary of the Congress party back in 1999. To date, there has never been a situation where an exit poll has been boycotted. The whole game plan is to ensure that questions will be raised on the electoral process… pic.twitter.com/7LMTKpYTy4

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 1, 2024

Later on Saturday, however, the Congress party reversed the decision and party leader Pawan Khera announced that the INDIA bloc had decided to send its representatives to discussions on the exit polls on TV channels. The exit polls have predicted that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set to win the elections and Narendra Modi is set to win a historic third consecutive term as the Prime Minister of India.

Questions on EVMs & Election Commission

Throughout the elections and even before that, the Opposition parties have raised questions at the electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the polls and have also raised questions at the working of the Election Commission.

Recently, the Opposition has raised question on voter turnout data released by the EC and the civil society has sought the release of booth-wise absolute numbers of voter turnout by the EC.

In a petition that the Supreme Court refused to consider, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) sought directions for the EC to upload booth-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of the completion of polling on a seat.

In a letter to leaders of the INDI Alliance, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the voting data released by the EC raised “serious doubts”. Apart from the delay, it “does not mention crucial yet related figures, such as the votes polled in each Parliamentary Constituency and in the respective Assembly Constituencies”, said Kharge in the letter, according to The Hindu.

“On earlier occasions, the Commission has published voter turnout data within 24 hours of polling. What has changed this time? Why has the Commission failed to issue any clarification to justify the delay, despite being repeatedly questioned by political parties as well as political activists?” said Kharge further in the letter, as per the newspaper.

The EC responded to Kharge’s letter by saying that it was not legally mandated to release absolute numbers of voting. It added that its only obligation is to issue Form 17-C which the EC is issuing to all the candidates as “as the strongest measure of transparency”, as per report.

Kharge’s allegation was an attempt to “create confusion, misdirection and impediments in the conduct of free and fair polls”, said EC further in its response.