Tally mismatch in Telangana Assembly poll results: Are winners losers?

Hyderabad: The Election Commission has made a mess of election process in the recent Telangana state Assembly elections. Apart from missing of voters, the mismanagement of electoral process by the EC could be witnessed in the counting of votes, which might have changed the fate of several candidates.

A cross-verification of total votes polled in a constituency and the sum total of votes polled for all contesting candidates, including Nota, revealed mismatches, which could change the winner. 

The mismatch was seen in several constituencies in the state. In some, it could affect the fate of TRS candidates, while in some, it may affect Congress candidates.

For example, in the Dharmapuri Assembly constituency, the total polled votes — as per the Election Commission data released to the media — were 1,65,209. The sum total of votes polled for all 11 contesting candidates and Nota in the Dharmapuri constituency was 1,65,747.

Because of this, the Election Commission reported 538 extra votes. The margin of the winning TRS candidate Koppula Eswar was 441 votes. If the extra votes were to be annulled, it would result in the victory of the nearest rival and Congress candidate A.  Laxman Kumar.

However, the Election Commission is silent on how candidates could more votes than what were actually existing. Asked about the mismatch of votes, Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said there will be small differences. When asked about the mismatched votes being more than the winning candidate’s margin, Mr  Kumar said he will order an inquiry into this.

If the mismatch was proved, it could change the winners in many constituencies, where the winning margin was low. If the winning margin like in Gajwel was high, the mismatch would not make any difference to the victorious candidate. In Gajwel, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao won with a margin of 58,290 votes.