At the end of Gujarat’s second phase, Congress says voting was unusually high

According to the Congress, the second-phase vote in the just-concluded Gujarat assembly election was “unusually high”.

On December 5, the party claimed 16 lakh votes had been polled in the last hour.

According to Pawan Khera, head of the AICC’s media and publicity department, the party is addressing an issue that is critical for democracy, future elections and future generations.

Friends in the media has told us through their publications and on some channels that the second round of voting in Gujarat saw unprecedented turnout. It’s 6.5 percent on average, but there were seats where 11.5 percent were cast in the last hour, which is impossible, because 60 seconds are needed for each vote on average,” he told reporters.

According to him, no one can vote in less than 60 seconds. In Gujarat, one vote took 25-30 seconds, which is unheard of.

It’s impossible, he said. You can do a mock session and see. “But in Gujarat, it was possible.” he said.

According to Khera, the voting percentage in Raopura assembly constituency in Baroda went from 51 per cent at 5pm to 57.68 per cent at 6pm. Additionally, he gave Asarva and Vejalpur as examples.

We’re collecting 17C forms (accounts of votes recorded and paper seal accounts) from our candidates to figure out exactly how much percentage went up in the last hour of voting in Gujarat,” he said.

“A rise of 16,000 votes spread over 281 booths, each booth with 57 votes, in one hour is impossible,” he said.

In Khera’s words, the party is still analyzing the voting percentage and trying to collate the information before moving forward.

So we gotta do our homework, right? Let’s make sure we’re prepared. Taking the next step requires arming ourselves right, equipping ourselves,” the Congress leader said.

During the last hour, some seats in Vadodara got a 10-12 percent boost in votes.

“We hope and ask you to do some investigation, because we owe it to our democracy, to our electoral democracy. No one should be able to hijack the only weapon we have as voters, which is our vote,” he said.

Several delegations from Congress sent concerns to the Election Commission, including severe violations of the model code of conduct, he said.

It also claimed the ruling party violated child rights by using a child to campaign for the prime minister. “Unfortunately, neither justice is being served nor is there any hope for justice,” he told reporters.

With just 17 seats in the 182-member Gujarat House, the Congress took a beating.

For the seventh straight term, the BJP won the largest majority ever in the western state. The party won 156 seats.

On December 1 and 5, voters voted, and the results were announced on December 8.