Remain vigilant to the possibility of manipulation in vote counting, says NCP(SP)‘s Jayant Patil

Election Results 2024: NCP-SP State president Jayant Patil urges party workers to remain vigilant during vote counting to prevent manipulation.

To ensure there was no repeat of manipulation in the counting of votes allegedly “like in Chandigarh”, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) State president and MLA Jayant Patil in a letter asked his party workers to remain vigilant.

“Even when many people have realised that the INDIA (Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance) bloc will secure a majority in the country, the ruling party is misleading in this [exit polls] way because that can leave you confused and dampen your enthusiasm, so that you are not alert and active, and this opportunity can be had to manipulate the counting of votes by taking corrupt officials into their [the National Democratic Alliance or NDA’s] hands, like in Chandigarh,” Mr. Patil stated.

The reference to Chandigarh concerns the mayoral polls held earlier this year in that city, where the presiding officer had declared eight votes invalid, which helped the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate Manoj Sonkar secure his win. Later, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) moved the Supreme Court, which ordered the prosecution of the presiding officer, and declared the AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar as the winner.

The Islampur MLA did not rule out the possibility of the “ruling party” indulging in unfair practices while vote counting was in progress. “Therefore, it is more necessary to be alert on the day of counting of votes without falling prey to any such blunders,” the letter read.

The patience and vigilance shown during the polling season over the past one-and-a-half months should be exercised even on June 4, while counting was underway and until the Certificate of Election was handed over to the winning candidate, Mr. Patil said. “During this period, the ruling party may attempt to mislead and try to vitiate the social atmosphere, but we have to be absolutely vigilant,” he added.

He also asked party workers to not leave the counting centres at any point, and ensure they were a part of the team supervising the mandatory corroboration of five Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) votes, after counting was completed.