Lok Sabha Election 2019 Phase V: Telangana Congress alleges foul play behind spike in voting percentage, seeks report on polling

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress on Monday claimed that there was some foul play behind the sudden spike in polling percentage after 5 pm in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Senior Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy, while speaking to ANI, said: “During the Assembly elections held in 2018, we saw a hike of 6.3 percent in the overall polling percentage. It was unprecedented as compared to the percentage of voting given on the day of polling at 5 pm, which was 5.26 percent.”

Two days ago, Reddy submitted a representation to the Election Commission in this regard. He alleged that there was an unprecedented spike in the polling percentages after 5 pm in the parliamentary elections held on 11 April in Telangana’s 17 Lok Sabha seats. He alleged that Telangana’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) is trying to downplay the whole issue. “While announcing the poll percentage on the voting day, the CEO increased the polling percentage.”

“When the final figures were announced, he reduced it by 1.5 percent to give an impression that the gap is only of 2.12 percent. It seems the CEO is fully aware of irregularities done in the polling,” he said. According to Reddy, in Nizamabad parliament constituency, there was an increase of 14.13 percent in total polling, while in Chevella parliament constituency, there was a decrease of 0.58 percent, which means 14,000 votes were less than the figure which was given on the polling day.

“Things are pointing to a situation where the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) are involved in this act of manipulation,” he said.

The Congress party has sought a report on polling in each assembly segment of the Lok Sabha constituency at 5 pm on the polling and the voting percentage after the polling finally ended after 5 pm. The party has also sought the inside footage of every polling station till the end of voting.