New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) The petitioners demanding the Election Commission release data related to voter turnout in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections met the poll panel on Tuesday but said “there was no worthwhile or significant response that came through”.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra and NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2019 after the Lok Sabha elections, demanding the Election Commission to release data related to voter turnout.

The ADR filed an interim application in the 2019 PIL, seeking directions to the poll panel that “scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded)” of all polling stations be uploaded immediately after the polls.

The Supreme Court, while hearing the PIL last month had asked the petitioners to make representations before the poll panel in 10 days. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the Election Commission, said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar wanted to meet the petitioners and discuss their grievances with them.

Activists Prashant Bhushan and Jagdeep Chhokar, and Moitra met representatives of the poll panel here but said the meeting was not fruitful.

Talking to reporters after the meeting with the representatives of the Election Commission, the petitioners said the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners did not meet them.

The petitioners said they would give further representations on the matter in the court. They also said they informed the officials that there were discrepancies in the voter turnout data and also said that the credibility of the poll panel was at stake.

“We were saying you tell us why these discrepancies are there and secondly, you put figures like Form 17(C), Form 20 etc on a public website… Today we explained to them that there is a serious credibility crisis in the Election Commission. Today, majority of people in the country do not trust the Election Commission… The lack of trust is arising out of lack of transparency,” Bhushan said.

He asked when the poll panel is giving data to the election agents, and why they can not upload it on their website.

“That will allay all suspicions and fears that votes are being manipulated, EVMs are being tampered with… Unfortunately, middle-level officials came for the meeting. The Election Commissioners did not come to the meeting.

“They did not have answers to this question nor were they authorised to answer these questions. So we don’t know what was the purpose achieved in this meeting apart from buying some more time in the court,” he said.

Chhokar said they would make further representations in the court.

“The meeting was held because of an offer made by the counsel for the Election Commission in the Supreme Court. The offer made was that the new Election Commissioner is willing to discuss all issues with the petitioners. The CEC and the two Elections Commissioners were not in the meeting,” Chhokar said.

“We told them our issues have been in the court since 2019 and the Election Commission has also given an affidavit, so you should know the issues. We still spent one hour trying to explain our issue, but no worthwhile or significant response came through.

“They said we will look into it and let you know. We said please let us know in the court,” he said.

Moitra claimed that there have been discrepancies in the data related to polling data in both the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“In the last two elections, there have been huge discrepancies in many constituencies in the number of votes counted and number of votes registered in the machine. Second is the trailing voting percentage — when at the end of the polling day, some booth at 7 pm has a voting percentage of 60 per cent, and then we find at the end of voting that it has a polling percentage of 80 per cent,” Moitra said.

She alleged that the credibility of the EC is standing at an “all-time low”, especially post-Maharashtra assembly elections.

“It is the is the right of every citizen to have this information. The EC did not call us here today due to some great desire to discuss, they suggested that they will sit across the table and come towards a resolution,” she said.

“We came with a good, bona fide intention… They said we will have a series of hearings. We are not here for a series of hearings, we are here to solve this issue for once and for all. We will see this next in Supreme Court where we will continue to fight this,” Moitra added.

On May 17, 2024, the top court had sought within a week the Election Commission’s response to the NGO’s plea. In its affidavit, the poll panel opposed the NGO’s demand contending it would “vitiate” the electoral space and cause “chaos” in the poll machinery in the midst of the general elections. PTI AO AO KSS KSS