Cong candidate Patole sticks to allegations of discrepancies
   Date :24-May-2019

 
Staff Reporter:
 
Nana Patole, Congress candidate from Nagpur constituency of Lok Sabha, trailed behind his rival Nitin Gadkari, BJP candidate, by a huge margin of over two lakh votes as per the figures available till 9 pm, was a disgruntled man. He stuck to his allegations that his men were not allowed to examine the electronic voting machines (EVMs). Patole has been levelling allegations against the administration that his men were not being allowed at every table. During and after the poll campaign period also, he had lodged over 50 complaints. While the counting process was in progress at Kalamna market yard here on Thursday, the trends were pretty clear. Patole visited the counting centre and met Ashwin Mudgal, District Collector and Returning Officer for Nagpur constituency.
 
After the meeting, he talked to reporters. He demanded that the Returning Officer should provide information about the number of votes counted in EVMs and the tally of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips. According to Patole, there were ‘some discrepancies’ and Congress workers demanded to check the machines. He alleged that Gadkari was getting 551 votes from different booths in East Nagpur segment of Legislative Assembly.
 
“How is it possible that the number of votes polled from different booths is the same? We feel that there are some issues with the EVMs,” he said. When he demanded to check the EVMs, he alleged that the administration did not permit the same. He also said that 70 (C) form was not made available to counting agents of Congress Party by the Returning Officer. It pertained to list of those Controlling Units of EVM whose battery had drained and were taken out of counting process temporarily. However Patole only lodged oral complaint with Returning Officer avoiding giving it in writing.