Kumar made the remarks at a press conference a day before the counting of votes is scheduled to begin at 8 am on Tuesday. This is the first time that the Central Election Commission has addressed the media a day before the election results.
However, the Central Election Commission said the next Lok Sabha elections in 2029 will be concluded by April-end due to sweltering weather in several states which led to low voter turnout.
Addressing the meeting, Kumar sought to portray the Election Observers as strong as they were under the previous Commissioner. He refuted the Opposition’s allegation that the Election Observers had gone “missing” during the voting and discussed the upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
2024 House of Representatives Elections
“India set a world record this year with 642 million voters, including 312 million women, exercising their franchise,” the Central Election Commission said in a statement.
Additionally, the EC reported record seizures. ₹10,000 crore were seized in the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections that began on April 19 and ended on June 1. The seized cash, prizes, narcotics and liquor are 100% higher than those seized in the 2024 elections. ₹3,500 billion in 2019.
Central Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the Election Commission will soon begin the election process in Jammu and Kashmir.
Kumar said more than 90 per cent of the 495 complaints regarding violation of the Model Code of Conduct were disposed of during the 2024 elections.
Around 400,000 vehicles, 135 special trains and 1,692 air sorties were used to conduct the 2024 Indian Lok Sabha elections, and only 39 re-polls were held this year as against 540 in 2019, he said.
Ahead of the seventh and final phase of the elections, much of north and central India was hit by a heatwave on May 28, with temperatures exceeding 50°C in Churu, Rajasthan, and Sirsa, Haryana, and up to 9°C above normal in Delhi.
Opposition suspicions
“We have always been here and have never gone missing,” Kumar said in a social media meme inspired by the recent film “Lapathaa Ladies” calling the election commissioners “Lapathaa gentlemen”.
But regarding most of the accusations from the opposition, the Central Election Commission said they were stories aimed at “misleading” the electoral process.
The CEC made the remarks at a press conference a day after the Union of India asked the Election Commission to ensure that postal votes are counted and their results declared before the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results are declared.
In the last Indian Lok Sabha elections, the Deputy Election Commissioner held media briefings after each election phase, but this practice has been discontinued for the current Indian Lok Sabha elections.
Nearly one billion Indians – some 970 million people – were due to vote over a six-week period, the longest period in history, with the Election Commission setting up more than one million polling stations and 2,400 political parties taking part.
In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats and its coalition partner, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), secured 350 seats.
In contrast, the Indian National Congress won only 52 seats, less than the 10% needed to secure the position of Leader of the Opposition, while the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won 91. The remaining 98 seats were won by other parties.
This time around, Prime Minister Modi has set a target of 370 seats for the BJP and over 400 for the NDA in the 543-seat House of Representatives.
READ ALSO | Raghuram Rajan: Election results may determine India’s economic future
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Release Date: June 3, 2024 8:20 PM IST
