A social media post claims 5,04,313 additional votes were counted in Maharashtra elections. One such Facebook post came to our notice where the user wrote, “Another fraud has been surfaced in connection with the Maharashtra election 🚨
A whopping 5,04,313 ‘Additional’ Votes counted in the Maharashtra election.
There is a Gross Data Mismatch Between Votes Polled and votes Counted in the Last Maharashtra Assembly election.
When will the opposition parties (INDIA Bloc) understand this that ECI is the puppet of Modi?
Why ain’t they even bothered!!!
Big Surprise!!
#kumbhkaran
#BanEVM
#ECI
#SamvidhanDivas”
Facebook Link | Archived Link.
However, as we investigated, we came to know that the claim was misleading. Here’s the fact check.
Fact Check
We started our investigation by conducting a relevant keyword search. This led us to a tweet from the Chief Electoral Office Maharashtra issuing a clarification regarding the viral claim on 26 November 2024.
The claim was first raised by the country’s leading news agency The Wire.
According to the clarification from the CEO of Maharashtra, “Total votes polled in all 288 Assembly constituencies in EVM in Maharashtra state is 6,40,88,195, which has been mischievously shown as total votes polled. The fact is that 5,38,225 valid postal ballots were not added in this figure. When we add the 5,38,225 valid postal ballots to the 6,40,88,195 votes polled in EVM; The total votes polled comes out to be 6,46,26,420. Total votes counted on the day of the counting including postal ballots is 6,45,92,508. Hence, the total votes counted are not more than total votes polled.
However, in few ACs the lesser number of votes were counted than the votes polled due to the following reasons and as per the established protocol:
a. The EVM counting is not taken up if Mock Poll Data was not cleared from the Control Unit of the Polling Station before actual start of Poll or If there is non-display of result in the display panel of Control Unit. or there was mismatch in data reported in Form 17C and votes recorded in EVM due to clerical or typing human error. In such cases, as the winning margin was higher than total votes polled in these Polling Stations, counting of VVPAT Slips of these Polling Stations was not done as per instructions contained in Para No.7(iv)(b) of ECIs letter dated 19.07.2023. Election Duty Certificates are issued to the Polling Officers on Poll Duty who are voters of the same Assembly Constituency but number of EDC (Election’ Duty Certificate) votes are not included while entering data.
4. Additionally, regarding 02 Assembly Constituencies, viz.231-Ashti and 242-Osmanabad ACs mentioned in your report where vote difference is alleged as 4538 and 4330, respectively are also misleading and irresponsible reporting.
The following details will clarify: –
1. AC 231 Ashti
(https://results.eci.gov.in/ResultAcGenNov2024/ConstituencywiseS13231.htm)
* Total EVM votes :282246
* Total Postal Vo t e s : 5013
* Total Rejected postal Votes : 475
* Total valid postal votes counted: 5013-475 = 4538
2. AC 242 Osmanabad
(https://results.eci.gov.in/ResultAcGenNov2024/ConstituencywiseS13242.htm )
* Total EVM votes : 238840
* Total Postal Votes : 4 3 3 0
* Total Rejected postal Votes : 175
* Total valid postal votes counted: 4330 – 175 = 4155″
To verify this, we checked the data published by the chief executive officer of Maharashtra on their website on 22 November 2024 regarding the total votes polled in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections. According to the data, the total number of votes cast in all 288 assembly constituencies in Maharashtra using EVMs was 6,40,88,195, with a total voting percentage of 66.05%. This shows that the data released by the Chief Executive Officer of Maharashtra was misrepresented as the total number of votes cast in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections by excluding postal ballots.
The Wire later updated their article that includes an editor’s note that read, “An earlier version of this report did not account for the postal votes cast. The story was later updated with correct calculations. The initial error is regretted.”
This makes it clear that the viral data is misleading.
Conclusion
From our investigation, we can say that the viral claim is misleading. 6,40,88,195 votes were received through EVMs and 5,38,225 votes through postal ballots, bringing the total turnout to 6,46,26,4 The total number of votes counted, including postal ballots, is 6,45,92,508, which is less than the total turnout. Valid postal ballot votes in Ashti and Osmanabad constituencies were misrepresented as extra votes.
Title:Additional 5,04,313 Votes Counted In The Maharashtra Elections? Here’s The Truth.
Fact Check By: Debanjana BaishyaResult: Misleading
