Opposition says targeted financially; BJP: Congress only won in pre-ID, CCTV era

Initiating the discussion, Congress Rajya Sabha member and AICC treasurer, Ajay Maken, said that while India proudly claims to be the mother of demo­cracy, the three fundamental conditions for democracy to survive and allow a fair election are a level-playing field, transparency, and credibility, have been systematically undermined.

When it comes to a level-playing field, Maken alleged, BJP had ensured other parties cannot compete financially.

“After the 2004 (Lok Sabha elections), the BJP had Rs 83 crore in its account and we had Rs 38 crore. When our government came to power, we received more money. After 2009 (elections), there was Rs 150 crore in BJP’s account and we had Rs 221 crore. So this was 60:40… This ratio remained the same after 2014 as well. Then BJP was in power for five years and their balance jumped to Rs 3,562 crore. It was 11 times more than Congress’s… which had Rs 315 crore. The ratio was 92:8. Then came 2024, and BJP had Rs 10,107 crore while Congress Rs 133 crore. How will the Opposition compete with the ruling party when the ratio is 99:1?” he said.

He also alleged Congress accounts were frozen before the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and were only unfrozen after a deduction of Rs 135 crore by the Income Tax Department.

“How will we prepare for elections? How will the main Opposition work?” he said.

When it comes to transparency, he alleged, there was a 7% increase in voter turnout data between the figures presented on the night of voting and the counting day.

Maken said that instead of handing over the CCTV footage which would have made it clear as to how this happened as per the court orders, the rules were changed to allow the EC to delete “the evidence” within 45 days instead of a year as it was earlier. “Today, the Election Commission has become a puppet of the government.”

Citing Karnataka’s Aland Assembly constituency, where applications to remove 6,018 voters were received, he said, “When a complaint was filed and the CID investigated, it was found that 5,994 applications were fake. Who were these people? The Dalits and the marginalised. During investigation, when the Election Commission was asked for the IP addresses, they did not share it.”

Accusing the poll panel of being biased, he claimed it had halted their monetary support scheme of Rs 1,500 to farmers in Telangana and Himachal Pradesh when the Model Code of Conduct was in place, but a similar thing was allowed in Bihar where women were given Rs 10,000 in their accounts. “You can change rules, you can buy the umpire, but you cannot suppress the voice of the people forever,” he said.

Countering the Congress’s allegations, BJP member Sudhanshu Trivedi said the first election petition filed in the country was against the Congress itself with 74,333 votes being rejected when B R Ambedkar lost the election by just 14,561 votes in 1952.

On the Opposition’s “vote chori” allegation, Trivedi said Congress’s influence has been reducing, and asked what was left there to be stolen.

He said that Congress only won in an era when there were no voter IDs, CCTV cameras, independent judiciary, independent media, and literacy rate was low. He underlined that PM Narendra Modi-led NDA government has reduced anonymous donations to parties from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000.

Earlier the Opposition used to say that the EVMs had been tampered with, he said, but now they are saying the same about electoral rolls. “Was that the truth or is this the truth… the reality is that neither that nor this.” He said that the Opposition has no issue with the poll panel when they win, but target it when they lose.

The Opposition says that the Election Commission was fine in J&K and Punjab, but there were problems in Haryana and Uttarakhand, he said.

The poll panel, according to the Opposition, was fine in 2018 in Rajasthan but not in 2023, there were problems in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, but no issues in Jharkhand, fantastic in West Bengal, good in Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “The people are not unintelligent,” he said.

DMK MP N R Elango said people must know what happens when they press a button on the EVM, must be assured that their vote is recorded exactly as they intended and confident that their names will not be deleted from electoral rolls through bureaucratic opacity.

“We are not questioning any particular election result,” he said, “We are not alleging any particular election was tampered with. What we are demanding is transparency… accountability. What we are demanding is that the possibility of tampering should be made impossible—not left to statistical probability.”

Elango also suggested that the EC publish Form 17C data on the day after voting, which should also record the time when the voting started, when it stopped, and whether there were gaps in between.