LS polls: Congress urges Indore voters to press NOTA button, says it won’t back any candidate
Indore, May 2: The Congress, ejected from the contest after its Indore candidate joined the BJP, is appealing to voters to press the ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option, a move slammed by the ruling party as negative tactics.
Akshay Kanti Bam, who had been pitted against BJP’s sitting MP Shankar Lalwani, shocked the grand old party on Monday, which was the last day for withdrawal of nomination, after he pulled out of the race and switched over to the saffron party.
The Indore constituency in Madhya Pradesh will go to polls on May 13 in the fourth phase of the general elections.
“Voters of Indore had delivered a huge victory to the BJP in the last municipal and assembly elections. In spite of it, the saffron party murdered democracy by unfairly luring Bam. Voters must give a befitting reply to BJP by hitting NOTA,” senior Congress leader Shobha Ojha told PTI on Thursday.
MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari had said on Tuesday that his party won't support any candidate, adding that voters had NOTA option to punish the BJP.
Congress leaders’ “instigation” of voters to use NOTA shows that the main opposition party is resorting to “negative tactics” in the festival of democracy, said Lalwani.
The BJP has been on a winning streak in MP’s commercial capital for the last 35 years.
Indore, the largest constituency in the state in terms of electorates, has 25.13 lakh eligible voters. BJP leaders have claimed that the party is aiming to win the Indore seat by a margin of 8 lakh votes this time.
During the 2019 elections, Lalwani defeated Congress’ Pankaj Sanghvi by 5.48 lakh votes. NOTA had polled 5,045 votes then.
After the withdrawal of nominations, 14 candidates, including nine independents, are left in the fray in Indore.
“The option of NOTA is not good for democracy. Voters must choose one of the candidates,” said Abhay Jain, who is contesting as an independent.
Jain heads the Janhit Party, formed by former RSS workers. The party is yet to be recognised by the Election Commission. Janhit Party is promising to “free Indore of drugs and money and muscle politics”.
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SC to hear today NGO's plea for release of voter turnout data for LS polls within 48 hours
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to grant an urgent hearing on a plea by an NGO seeking a direction to the Election Commission to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the counsel appearing for the Election Commission (EC) to take instructions and said it will hear the matter at the end of the board.
The matter was mentioned by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), seeking urgent listing of the petition.
Last week, the NGO filed an interim application in its 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.
"Direct the Election Commission to provide tabulated polling station-wise data in absolute figures of the number of votes polled as recorded in Form 17C Part- I after each phase of polling in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections and also a tabulation of constituency-wise figures of voter turnout in absolute numbers in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections," the NGO said.
It said the plea was filed to ensure that the democratic process is not subverted by electoral irregularities.
"The voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections published by ECI on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling... on April 19 and four days after second phase of polling... on April 26.
"The data, as published by the ECI in its press release dated April 30, 2024 shows a sharp increase (by about 5-6 per cent) as compared to the initial percentages announced by ECI as of 7 pm on the day of polling," the plea said.
The petition said the "inordinate" delay in the release of final voter turnout data, coupled with the unusually high revision of over 5 per cent in the poll panel's press note of April 30, 2024 has raised concerns and public suspicion regarding the correctness of the said data.
The non-release of the absolute number of votes polled coupled with the "unreasonable delay" in the release of votes polled data has led to apprehensions in the mind of the electorate about the sharp increase between initial data and data released on April 30, it said.
"These apprehensions must be addressed and put to rest. That in order to uphold the voter's confidence it is necessary that the ECI be directed to disclose on its website scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part- I (Account of Votes Recorded) of all polling stations which contains the authenticated figures for votes polled, within 48 hours of the close of polling," it said.
