2024-04-10 16:03:45
New Delhi: Voting for the first phase of 2024 Lok Sabha elections is on 19 April. The Election Commission is busy preparing for this. However, before the voting, a video is going viral on social media, in which it is being claimed that during the 2019 general elections, 11 lakh people cast their votes during the voting in Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. However, the total number of votes during counting was 12 lakh 87 thousand. Along with this, it is being claimed that this happened in a total of 373 Lok Sabha seats, where more votes were cast than the number of voters.
Vishvas News found this claim to be fake in fact check. The total number of voters during the Lok Sabha elections 2019 in Varanasi seat was 18,56,791, of which the number of votes cast through Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was 10,58,744 and the number of votes cast through postal ballot was 2085. That means out of 18 lakh 56 thousand 791 voters, a total of 10 lakh 60 thousand 829 people cast their votes. Therefore, this claim is false and election propaganda that a total of 11 lakh votes were cast in the 2019 elections in Varanasi Lok Sabha seat and the number of these votes during counting from EVMs was 12 lakh 87 thousand. Also, the claim is false that this happened in a total of 373 Lok Sabha seats, where during counting, the number of votes recorded was more than the number of votes polled.
What is viral?
Social media user ‘Mansi Soni’, while sharing the viral video clip (archive link), wrote, ‘Dear @ECISVEEP, is it true that 11 lakh votes were cast in Varanasi elections in 2019, but 12 lakh 87000 votes were counted in the EVM. Went.’ Many other users on different social media platforms have shared this video with similar and similar claims.
investigation
Two claims have been made in the viral video. The first claim was that during the 2019 elections, ’11 lakh people cast their votes’ in Varanasi Lok Sabha seat (Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha seat in 2019) and when counted through EVMs, the number of these votes came out to be ’12 lakh 87 thousand.’
Data for the 2019 elections is available on the Election Commission’s website. We checked the total number of voters versus the number of voters who voted in Varanasi seat on the website of the Commission. According to Election Commission data, the total number of voters in Varanasi seat during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was 18,56,791, of which 10,58,744 votes were cast through EVMs (including male, female, third gender voters). At the same time, 2085 votes were cast through postal ballot. That means the total number of voters present in this seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was 18,56,791, out of which 10,60,829 exercised their franchise.
If seen in percentage, compared to the total registered voters, 57.13 percent voters exercised their franchise. That is, this claim is wrong and beyond the facts that during the 2019 Varanasi Lok Sabha seat voting, 11 lakh people cast their votes and the total number of votes during EVM counting was 12 lakh 87 thousand. The second claim in the viral video clip is that similar irregularities were seen in other 373 Lok Sabha seats in the country, where more votes were cast than the number of voters. This data is also available on the website of the Election Commission, according to which voting took place for a total of 543 seats (412-General seats, 84-SC, 47 ST) during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the total voting percentage (except postal ballot) during this period is It was 67.1 percent.
If we look at the pure figures, the total number of voters during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was 911950734, out of which 611876971 exercised their franchise. If the claim made in the viral post was true then the vote percentage figure would have been much higher. We contacted Central Election Commission official Anuj Chandak regarding the viral post. He said that a clarification has been issued by the Election Commission regarding this. We found this clarification on the Election Commission’s official
The user who shared the viral video has described himself as an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker in his profile. According to the Election Commission’s notification (archive link), voting is to be held in seven phases for a total of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Voting will be held on a total of eight seats under the first phase on April 19.
conclusion
In the investigation of Vishvas News, the claim going viral on social media is wrong that during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a total of 11 lakh votes were cast in Varanasi seat and during counting from EVM, the number of these votes was 12 lakh 87 thousand. Also, the claim is false that this happened in a total of 373 Lok Sabha seats, where during counting, the number of votes recorded was more than the number of votes polled.
(This story was originally published by Vishvas News, and republished by NBT as part of the Shakti Collective.)