Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today accused the BJP of pressuring district officers overseeing the counting of Lok Sabha election votes. Without naming anyone, he tagged the Election Commission in a post on X, stating: “In Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj, Bansgaon, Meerut, and Muzaffarnagar seats, pressure is being exerted on district officials through phone calls to win the seats. Administrative officials should remember that the government is changing and this tampering with democracy will not be accepted.”
The INDIA bloc, represented by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP), is currently leading in the seats mentioned by Ramesh.
Ramesh has also questioned the EC why there were delays in vote counting. He alleged that the Election Commission may have received orders to slow down the counting of votes, after a better-than-expected performance by the INDIA bloc.
In a series of posts on X, Ramesh wrote, “Why are the results not being updated at that speed on the Election Commission website and various channels? Why is the process so slow for the last two hours?”
“Where did the orders to slow down come from?” he asked.
Ramesh also pointed out that there was “much delay” in the counting of votes for seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the ruling party faced tough contests from the Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United), respectively.
“Why is there so much delay in counting of votes in many seats of UP and Bihar? This is totally unusual,” he said.
“Trends for all 543 seats are now available. The following have become clear: 1. It will be a staggering political and decisively moral defeat for Narendra Modi. 2. The exit polls that he orchestrated have been completely exposed for what they were – a total sham,” he said.
The BJP had swept Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 and 2019 elections. However, exit polls this time predicted a tighter race. By 3 pm, the heartland state had disrupted the BJP’s plans, with the INDIA bloc leading in over 40 of the 80 seats, while the BJP was ahead in 36-37.
As the counting of votes began on Tuesday, the BJP-led NDA faced an unexpected challenge from the Opposition. Trends showed intense competition from the Samajwadi Party with the BJP leading in 34 seats and the SP in 45 by 3 pm.
Leading candidates included PM Narendra Modi in Varanasi, Rajnath Singh in Lucknow, Dimple Yadav in Mainpuri, Akhilesh Yadav in Kannauj, Ravi Kishan in Gorakhpur, Arun Govil in Meerut, Karan Bhushan in Kaiserganj, and Jitin Prasada in Pilibhit. Among those trailing were Maneka Gandhi in Sultanpur and Smriti Irani, who eventually lost Amethi to Congress’ Kishori Lal Sharma.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won a majority with 62 out of 80 seats, while Mayawati’s BSP secured 10 seats and the SP won five. The Congress managed only one seat, Rae Bareli. In 2014, the BJP achieved its best-ever performance in Uttar Pradesh, winning 71 out of 80 seats. Key constituencies in this high-stakes contest include Varanasi, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Azamgarh, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Faizabad, Mathura, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Kanpur, and Gorakhpur.
