In India, simultaneous elections for the Parliament and State General Assembly are conducted in states such as Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
In a simultaneous election, a voter goes to a polling booth and votes in two different elections through two different EVM units.
Is it possible, then, that a voter walks into a booth and exercises their right to vote in only one of the two elections?
This is exactly what happened in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Sikkim — states which voted simultaneously for the 2024 Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls — where a mismatch of 81,916 votes has been found between votes polled in Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections.
This means that 81,916 people in constituencies across these states voted in only one of the two elections despite both being held simultaneously at the same polling booths.
Of these 63,389 were EVM votes, while 18,527 votes were polled using postal ballots.
These findings are based on an analysis by The Quint of the detailed results published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on 24 December 2024.
(Note: We did not consider Arunachal Pradesh for this analysis due to unopposed election in 10 Assembly segments.)
Seats With High Variations
In Andhra Pradesh's Hindupur Lok Sabha Constituency which has seven Assembly segments, 13,96,687 EVM votes were polled in Lok Sabha elections, while 14,01,362 total EVM votes were polled in Assembly constituencies. This means that 4,675 more EVM votes were polled in the Assembly election as compared to Lok Sabha.
Similarly, in Odisha's Dhenkanal Lok Sabha, 4,056 more EVM votes were polled in elections to its seven constituent Assembly segments as compared to the Parliamentary seat.
In Kandhamal, which also comprises seven Assembly seats, 3,521 more EVM votes were polled in Lok Sabha as compared to the Vidhan Sabha elections.
ECI Guidelines on Simultaneous Elections
The poll body has laid down elaborate guidelines for Presiding Officers on how to conduct simultaneous elections.
At the Polling Station, there is one Presiding Officer, five Polling Officers, and polling agents of each party for the Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections.
The Presiding Officer is appointed by the District Election Officer (DEO) and is responsible for smooth conduct in their polling station.
The First Polling Officer is in charge of the marked copy of electoral roll and responsible for identification of the voters.
The Second Polling Officer makes the entries in the Register of Voters (Form 17A) including EPIC/other identification document details, takes the signature of the voters or the thumb impression (in the case of illiterate voters), and applies indelible ink on the left forefinger of the voter.
The Third Polling Officer issues voters slip to the voter indicating the serial number in which they would be going into the voting compartment to cast vote. White slips are issued for Lok Sabha and pink slips are issued for the Vidhan Sabha elections.
The Voter then proceeds to the fourth Polling Officer. He collects the white voter slip for Lok Sabha and press the ‘Ballot’ button in the Control Unit for Lok Sabha. Busy lamp in CU will glow red. Ready lamp in BU will glow green.
The voter then enters the voting compartment for Lok Sabha to cast their vote.
Next, the voter proceeds to the fifth Polling Officer, who is incharge of the Control Unit for the Vidhan Sabha/Assembly Election. The PO collects the pink slip from the voter and guides them to the voting compartment for the Assembly election.
The handbook for Polling Officers also mandates that after every hour, the fourth and the fifth PO should tally the total number of votes polled in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
'How Is It Possible...?'
Speaking to The Quint Amar Patnaik, former Rajya Sabha MP and the national spokesperson of Odisha's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) questioned how such discrepancies can arise.
"After the elections in Odisha, the poll body does not release separate voter turnouts for the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha elections. At the polling booths, there is only one Register of Voters. How is it then possible that the votes polled in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections do not match with each other?" Patnaik said.
The BJD, on 19 December, in a letter to the Election Commission had raised concerns around discrepancies in Election Data.
"How is it possible that votes polled in a Parliamentary constituency are different from votes polled in its constituent Assembly units?" the letter stated.
It continued: "It is highly improbable that a voter will enter a booth and vote only for the Parliament candidate and not for the Assembly candidate or vice versa,"
Patnaik told The Quint that the BJD is yet to receive a response from ECI regarding concerns raised in the letter.
As per former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, OP Rawat, such discrepancies can arise, even though they are not very common.
"These discrepancies do not arise very often and are not very huge in numbers so as to be able to influence the result of the election. There are always some individuals who do not wish to exercise their franchise in a particular election. They walk into the booth and vote only in one election, usually the one to elect members to the State General Assembly because that election is more local," Rawat explained.
(The Quint has reached out to the Election Commission of India for a response. This story will be updated when we hear from them.)
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