No mismatch found in votes polled & VVPAT slips in Maha, says EC

Mumbai: The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Tuesday that no discrepancies were found between the votes cast and the corresponding Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips during random verification in last month’s Maharashtra Assembly elections.

According to an ECI statement, the mandatory process of counting VVPAT slips from five randomly selected polling stations in each Assembly constituency was completed without any issues.

Opposition parties had raised concerns about the reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) after the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a sweeping victory in the November 20 polls.

The purpose of counting VVPAT slips is to cross-check the votes recorded by EVMs with their corresponding paper trails, the Commission explained. It added that candidate representatives were present throughout the verification process.

Across Maharashtra’s 288 Assembly constituencies, officials verified 1,440 VVPAT machines. Polling stations for the checks were chosen randomly by EC observers and candidate representatives, as outlined in the statement. “No mismatch was detected between the candidate-wise vote counts in the EVMs and the VVPAT slip counts,” the ECI confirmed.

To ensure transparency, special enclosures were set up at each counting centre, and the entire process was recorded on CCTV, with the footage securely stored, the statement added.

Under ECI guidelines, verifying VVPAT slips from five polling stations in each constituency is mandatory before the counting process is considered complete and winners can be officially declared. The BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance emerged victorious, winning 230 out of the 288 Assembly seats.