Hyderabad: The Congress on Friday questioned and sought details from the Election Commission over a 'significant' increase in the total polling percentage in Telangana announced at 5 pm on April 11 and the final figure declared the next day.
A Congress delegation submitted a letter to the poll body and urged it to furnish documents such as copies of reports from Returning Officers about the polling.
"The polling in the Lok Sabha elections on April 11 witnessed almost a similar increase of 5.26 percent from 59.06 at 5 pm on polling day to 64.32 percent announced the next day," former MLA Marri Shashidhar Reddy, who led the Congress delegation, said in a letter submitted to the Chief Election Commissioner.
He quoted a retired election official as having said that EVMs cannot be tampered with, but "can be misused depending on who gets his hands on them".
"The correctness of the number of votes polled after 5 pm is a big question," he said in the letter.
"The ruling TRS leaders in Telangana have "demonstrated their capability of invoking 'Sama danda bheda' techniques that are available to the ruling party in plenty", Reddy alleged.
He sought information, including copies of reports from the Returning Officers about the assembly segment-wise votes polled at 5 pm on the polling day and also on the next day in all the 17 parliamentary constituencies of Telangana which went to polls in the first phase.
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