The Election Commission on Wednesday described as misleading a social media post that claimed inconsistencies between the votes polled and the votes counted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and in state assembly elections held that year, and published seat-wise figures to rebut it.
The claim originated in a report by Reporters' Collective, published on November 10, which said the commission's internal records showed that votes cast did not match votes counted in 51 seats across Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.
In a three-part fact-check posted on X, the commission said it publishes the number of electors, votes polled through EVMs, postal ballots and total votes cast in its statistical reports and index cards, all available on its website. It questioned the reference to "internal records", noting that the post named constituencies and alleged the commission had counted zero votes in some of them without saying which records it was relying on.
The commission reiterated that Form 17C is the sole statutory account of votes cast at a polling station. It is prepared by the presiding officer at the close of polling and copies of Part-I are given to the polling agents of candidates present. On counting day, counting agents match the votes polled in Part-I with the votes counted in Part-II.
Chief Electoral Officers of the two states issued seat-wise clarifications. Maharashtra's CEO said that in Beed, of 3,84,885 electors, 2,38,845 votes were polled on EVMs and 2,42,084 including postal ballots; the "1,45,256 fewer votes counted" in the report was in fact the gap between electors and votes polled. In Dahanu, 3,01,257 electors polled 2,20,919 EVM votes and 2,21,818 including postal ballots. In Mumbai North, 18,12,115 electors polled 10,33,267 EVM votes and 10,36,496 including postal ballots; the report, it said, had taken the electorate of about 18.1 lakh as the number of votes polled.
EC officials separately rejected reports of a discrepancy in Mumbai North in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, saying they confused electors with voters: 10,33,267 voters, or 60.44 per cent of the electorate, exercised their franchise.
Haryana's CEO cited the Kaithal index card: 2,23,449 electors, 1,67,285 EVM votes and 1,566 postal ballots, or 1,68,851 votes polled; after 512 votes were deducted for test and rejected votes, and 1,427 valid postal votes counted, the valid votes stood at 1,68,200. The CEO said no complaint about a difference in figures had been received from anyone and that the reporters could have sought clarification.
Reporters' Collective had not responded to the commission's rebuttal at the time of filing.
(With inputs from PTI and media reports)