Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) leader Prakash Ambedkar Friday alleged that there was a discrepancy in the number of votes polled and the votes counted in over 300 Lok Sabha constituencies, and sought an explanation from the Election Commission of India (ECI).
This was observed across all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, he said.
The legitimacy of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre would be called into question if these observations were found to be correct, Ambedkar added.
"Data from 22 constituencies (in Maharashtra) shows that additional (excess) votes were counted, while in 26 constituencies the votes counted were less than the votes polled," Ambedkar told reporters here.
The ECI, which has always maintained that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) can not be tampered with, should explain to the common people these discrepancies, he said.
"If no explanation is forthcoming, we will launch an agitation against the ECI and go to the court," he added.
Ambedkar, who was accompanied by VBA leader Gopichand Padalkar at the press conference, said it found such discrepancies in more than 300 Parliamentary seats across the country.
"It's a large number, covering about three-fourths of the total seats....This only strengthens the public opinion that this election was not free and fair and votes which they cast had not been properly recorded," he added.
According to the VBA, in 26 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the number of votes counted was less than the number of votes cast.
These included Raigad (alleged difference of 16), Pune (alleged difference of 306), Mumbai South (111), Mumbai North (196), Mumbai North East (540), Mumbai North Central (1,026), Baramati (550), Satara (174), Maval (346), Nagpur (786), Solapur (132), Latur (880) and Parbhani (2,101).
The difference across these 26 constituencies adds up to 13,998 votes, the VBA said.
In 22 other seats, the number of votes counted was more than that of the votes polled, it alleged.
These included Aurangabad (1,207 extra votes), Wardha (1,380), Bhandara-Gondia (744), Beed (665), Akola (139), Nanded (139), Mumbai North West (306) and Mumbai South Central (79), it said. The total number of such excess votes was 7,196, the VBA alleged.
The VBA contested all 48 seats in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections. It drew blank on all seats barring one -- Aurangabad -- where VBA constituent AIMIM won.
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