Was there rigging in the Lok Sabha elections? More votes were counted than were actually cast. 5.54 lakh votes were counted less in 362 seats, claims made in ADR report

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has claimed about the Lok Sabha elections 2024 that there is a difference between the number of votes cast and counted in 538 parliamentary constituencies. According to ADR’s analysis, in the recent Lok Sabha elections, 5,54,598 votes were counted less than the total votes cast in 362 parliamentary constituencies. At the same time, there are 176 parliamentary constituencies where 35,093 votes were counted more than the total votes cast. There has been no response from the Election Commission on this matter yet.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, ADR founder Jagdeep Chhokar said, ‘Excessive delay in releasing the final polling data, non-availability of voting data at different constituencies and polling stations and the ambiguity of whether the election results were declared on the basis of the final matched data raise concerns and doubts about the authenticity of the election results. However, ADR did not say how many seats got different results due to this difference in votes.

Election Commission failed to give proper explanation: ADR

The ADR report states that the Election Commission has so far failed to give any proper explanation as to why it declared the election results before releasing the final and authentic data on the counting of votes. There has also been no explanation from the Election Commission on the votes cast in EVMs, the difference in their count, the increase in the final voting percentage a few days after the completion of the election, not disclosing the number of votes cast booth wise, undue delay in releasing the data of votes cast and removal of some data from its website.

ADR founder Jagdeep Chhokar said, ‘The Election Commission has failed to take appropriate steps to prevent the serious incidents of many violations, illegalities and irregularities seen in the Lok Sabha elections 2019 from being repeated in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. This has created doubts in the minds of voters. These apprehensions should be taken seriously and efforts should be made to address them.

Difference found in votes cast and counted in 538 seats

The Association for Democratic Reforms report said that while announcing the results of the General Elections 2024, significant discrepancies were seen in the votes cast and counted in 538 parliamentary constituencies except Amreli, Attingal, Lakshadweep and Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu. There was no contest in the Surat parliamentary seat, as the BJP candidate won unopposed from here. Thus, there is a difference of 589691 in the votes cast and counted in 538 parliamentary seats.

No discrepancy in the first 6 phases of Lok Sabha elections

Independent journalist Poonam Agarwal also addressed the press conference. She said that while analyzing the data of votes cast and votes counted, I got exactly the same result. He said, ‘For the first 6 phases of the Lok Sabha elections, the ECI’s Voter Turnout App displayed the exact number of voters. However, in the last i.e. 7th phase, the data of votes cast on this app was given only in percentage and the previous data was removed.

There was a difference of 739104 between the votes cast and counted in 2019

According to the research done by experts and ADR’s team on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, ‘In the analysis of 542 constituencies, discrepancies were seen in 347 seats. There were no discrepancies in 195 seats. These discrepancies ranged from 1 vote (lowest) to 101323 votes i.e. 10.49 percent (highest) of the total votes cast. There were 6 seats where the difference between the votes cast and the votes counted was more than the margin of victory. Overall, there was a difference of 739104 between the votes cast and the votes counted.’