BHUBANESWAR: The BJD has again raised the issue of alleged irregularities in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, stating that despite meeting the Election Commission of India (ECI) twice and submitting written representations, its questions have still remained unsolved.
Addressing a media-conference here, senior general secretary Lekhasree Samanta Singhar and BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s political secretary Santrupt Misra said the BJD is seeking answers to these irregularities not with any political motive but as a responsible political party committed to strengthen democracy.
The BJD leaders said as discrepancies were found in several places between votes polled and votes counted, the party demanded copies of Form 17C which contains boothwise data of votes polled. However, copies of the Form 17C are yet to be provided, they added.
Stating that the BJD had written to the ECI seeking copies of the Form 17C, they said, the request was rejected on the ground that election cases relating to several Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies are pending. When the BJD countered that cases relating to only 28 constituencies were pending and copies of Form 17C related to other seats could be provided, there was no response from the ECI.
The ECI had earlier explained that where the vote count recorded in the control unit does not match the figure mentioned in Form 17C, such votes are not counted. The ECI had also pointed out that if mock poll votes are not deleted, the votes polled in that EVM are also not counted.
However, the BJD leaders alleged that the response of the ECI lacked clarity. They demanded that copies of Form 17 C should be provided as demanded by the party at the earliest.