Kochi: Political economist and author Parakala Prabhakar on Wednesday said the BJP came to power for the third time by manipulating results in 79 Lok Sabha seats.
Citing a study conducted by the Vote for Democracy (VFD), a Maharashtra-based citizens’ platform which analysed in detail the stark mismatch between the votes polled and the votes counted in the seven-phase general elections held earlier this year, Prabhakar said the poll mandate was stolen by the BJP to enable Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retain power.
Prabhakar, husband of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, was delivering a talk at the Sabarmati Study Centre at the Ernakulam District Congress Committee (DCC) office.
Prabhakar pointed out the mismatch in the provisional number of votes polled and the final count released by the election commission and said that close to 5 crore votes were counted additionally.
He said the delay in releasing the final figures was evidence of adjusting the numbers in favour of the ruling party.
He said in the country’s history since 1952, the difference between the provisional and final figures of votes cast has never crossed 1 per cent while in 2024, the difference was 12.5 per cent. “In Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, 12.5 per cent additional votes came. All put together, about five crore extra votes were counted,” he said.
Driving home his point, he said the Election Commission has still not announced the final figure of votes counted during the second phase of voting. “Even today the second phase of polling figures are not announced. We don't know even now what is the gross voting and what is the percentage of voting cast by the people of India in the second phase. And interestingly the strike rate of BJP in the second phase was very high,” he said.
He said during other phases the election commission only announced the voting percentage and not actual figures on voter turnout.
“... Overall, the difference between votes polled and votes counted is 5 crore. But don't divide this by 540 seats. The difference in 79 seats in 15 states is very high. So these 5 crore votes in 79 seats made all the difference,” he explained. In a suggestive statement, he said in Kerala there was a difference of 86,000 votes and BJP won the Thrissur constituency in the state by nearly 75,000 votes.
In states where the BJP suffered heavy defeat, like in Uttar Pradesh, the difference was just 0.25 per cent. He said the nominal figure suggested that UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath “did not cooperate” with the plan to fudge voting figures.
Prabhakar said he was disappointed that the opposition parties did not do enough to prevent the malpractice. He was highly critical of the parties which did not care to collect the 17 C forms with which they could have challenged the Election Commission.
“If the political parties also worked as strenuously as the general civil society organisations, the result would have been much, much different. I'm sorry to say this. Political parties have not done enough," he said.
The Election Commission had found itself caught in a controversy over the transparency of voter turnout data during the Lok Sabha elections. On May 22, the poll body informed the Supreme Court that it could not publish Form 17C – which details the votes cast at each polling station – on its official website.
Prabhakar cast doubts over the future of the Modi government saying it would be difficult for the PM as he is not used to coalition governments.
