Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Opposition BJD Monday raised concerns over alleged ‘lapses’ on the part of the Election Commission for not uploading Form 17C data on the official website even after 19 months of the 2024 state and Lok Sabha elections.
The regional outfit headed by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik, which was defeated in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, said the party is seeking certain answers on electoral transparency not with any political motive, but as a responsible political party committed to strengthening India’s democracy.
Addressing a press conference here, Patnaik’s political secretary Santrupt Misra and BJD senior general secretary Lekhasree Samanta Singhar said the party had met the EC twice and submitted written representations regarding alleged irregularities in the 2024 elections, but had not received clear responses to several unresolved questions.
Misra explained that Form 17C contains booth-wise data of votes polled in an election. In several places, discrepancies were found between votes polled and votes counted, following which the party applied for copies of Form 17C. However, these were not provided, he alleged.
The EC responded that Form 17C could not be provided due to election-related cases pending in certain constituencies, he said.
However, he questioned why Form 17C could not be provided for other constituencies when election cases were pending in only 28 Assembly seats.
“No answer was given on this matter. Similarly, no explanation was provided on how, in some places, the number of votes counted exceeded the number of votes polled,” he alleged.
Misra said the Commission’s response stated that where the vote count recorded in the control unit does not match the figure mentioned in Form 17C, such votes are not counted. However, the EC did not clarify how many such instances occurred, he added.
“According to the Commission’s reply, if mock poll votes are not deleted, votes polled in that EVM are also not counted,” Misra said, adding that denying the counting of a citizen’s vote due to errors by election officials amounted to infringement of voting rights and was detrimental to democracy.
Misra also asked how and why vote figures provided by the Commission at the scheduled end of polling time at 5 pm showed an unexplained increase.
“In the 2024 elections, all 21 parliamentary constituencies and 38 Assembly constituencies in Odisha recorded an increase of 7 per cent to 30 per cent in vote figures, a phenomenon not seen in previous elections. The Election Commission has not provided any clear explanation on this issue,” he claimed.
This apart, BJD also demanded that political parties be allowed to participate in periodic audits of EVMs to enhance transparency. The EC has not responded to this demand either, Mishra added.
Singhar stated that Form 17C is the only instrument that can substantiate allegations of irregularities in elections.
“Possibly for this reason, the EC is deliberately delaying the release or publication of Form 17C,” she alleged.
“In order to bring transparency in electoral practice, the poll panel must provide clear answers and dispel doubts in the minds of the people”, Samanta Singhar said.
