Amid demands by some political parties in Bihar for a recount of votes in some constituencies, the Election Commission of India (EC) on Tuesday said that a recount would only take place when the margin of victory was lesser than the number of postal ballots found invalid.
According to an order issued by EC on May 18, 2019, when the margin of victory is less than the number of postal ballot papers rejected at the time of counting, all rejected postal ballot papers must mandatorily be reverified by the returning officer. “Wherever such reverification is done, the entire proceeding should be videographed as per instructions of the Commission,” the instructions state, said officials of the poll body.
The clarification came amid demand for a recounting of votes by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Lenin) in light of the narrow margin of victory in three constituencies.
“We urgently seek a recount of votes in the Bhorey, Arrah and Daraundha Assembly constituencies of Bihar. On all three of these seats, CPI(M-L) candidates have been shown to be defeated in very narrow margins, following some worrying violations of counting norms,” said party politburo member Kavita Krishnan in a representation to the chief election commissioner on Tuesday.
She alleged that in Bhorey -- where the party lost by 462 votes, according to EC data -- the Janata Dal (United) candidate Sunil Kumar, a former additional director general of police (DGP), commands clout. “The local JD(U) MP Alok Kumar Suman was seen entering the counting hall – which is illegal and prohibited. This was clearly an attempt to influence fair count of votes. As of now, the EC site shows Sunil Kumar at 73,550 votes and CPI(M-L)’s Jitendra Paswan at 72,524 votes,” the letter stated.
{{/usCountry}}She alleged that in Bhorey -- where the party lost by 462 votes, according to EC data -- the Janata Dal (United) candidate Sunil Kumar, a former additional director general of police (DGP), commands clout. “The local JD(U) MP Alok Kumar Suman was seen entering the counting hall – which is illegal and prohibited. This was clearly an attempt to influence fair count of votes. As of now, the EC site shows Sunil Kumar at 73,550 votes and CPI(M-L)’s Jitendra Paswan at 72,524 votes,” the letter stated.
{{/usCountry}}EC secretary-general Umesh Sinha, however, shot down any allegations of undue pressure on the commission. “The election commission is not under anyone’s influence,” said Sinha.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), too, alleged irregularities in the counting process in seats with tight margins. The party released a list of 119 seats that it said it had purportedly won in the state, prompting the poll body to clarify that the results for only 146 assembly constituencies in Bihar had been declared as of 10pm, with trends for the remaining 97 seats available on its website.
“A message on social media claimed that a party has won 119 seats about an hour ago, the EC’s website in the public domain and one can see that only 146 seats have been won so far,” said deputy election commissioner Chandra Bhushan at a press conference at 10 pm. As of 9:30 pm, 39.6 million votes had been counted, the election commission said. While the electorate in Bihar stands at 72 million, only 57.09%, or about 40 million, cast their votes in the polls to the 243-member assembly.