Change in voting figures flummoxes politicos

Nagpur: In cases it was tremendous pressure to deliver on time, in some callousness and in others combination of both. The provisional figures of voting in the district and the final ones differ so much that you may wonder whether they pertain to the same election. A difference of up to 2% is acceptable but beyond that indicates a serious flaw in polling data collection.
Take the case of Saoner. As per provisional figures released on Wednesday night the number of votes cast was 1,64,671. The final figure released on Thursday was 1,86,036 – over 21,000 more than the provisional one. In terms of polling percentage the difference is 8%.
Supporters of sitting MLA Sunil Kedar had calculated the polling percentage to be over 61%, closer to the provisional figure. They were quite puzzled when the final figure came out. However, Kedar said that this would only increase his margin of the victory.
On the other hand, according to the provisional figures the number of votes cast in Nagpur West was 1,89,605 but the final figure is 1,73,423, which is over 16,000 less. This sharp decrease of 5% polling percentage has made all the major candidates anxious.
In Nagpur South-West the district administration had released a provisional figure 2.01 lakh. The final figure is 1.91 lakh and the figure calculated by BJP on Wednesday night was 2.11 lakh. When Devendra Fadnavis’ polling agents were told the official figures they were shocked. Fadnavis urged district collector Abhishek Krishna to do a recheck and then the doubt was cleared.
Commenting on such discrepancies, deputy election officer Ajay Ramteke said that the provisional figures were not correct and it took a day to arrive at the actual figure. “The final figures are sent to Election Commission (EC) and they are used for all purposes,” he said.
However, in some constituencies this argument does not hold ground. The provisional polling percentage for Katol was 71% and the actual figure is 70.38%. The provisional and final figures of Tiroda (district Gondia) are 69.78% and 69.75%. Similar is the case of Dhamangaon Railway (district Amravati) where the provisional and final figures are 68% and 68.37%, respectively. There are some more constituencies where the difference between two figures is not much.
This clearly shows that if the concerned assistant returning officer (ARO) wants s/he can collate the polling data on time. Significantly, Katol, Tiroda and Dhamangaon are all rural constituencies where collecting data is difficult.
A revenue official told TOI on the condition of anonymity said that the major discrepancies occur because election officials extrapolate the polling figure up to 5pm for arriving at the final figure. “They are under pressure from media and many take the help of political parties to calculate the polling percentage,” he said.
What is surprising in case of Nagpur is that the administration’s provisional figure had the exact number of votes polled but the polling percentage figures were rounded off.
DISCREPANCY TABLE
Constituency Provisional % Final % Difference %
(Final – Provisional)
Katol 71 70.38 – 0.62
Saoner 61 68.91 7.91
Hingna 64 65.99 1.99
Umred 63 65.81 2.81
Nagpur South-West 59 56.22 – 2.78
Nagpur South 57 53.22 – 3.78
Nagpur East 58 56.28 – 1.72
Nagpur Central 57 55.12 – 1.88
Nagpur West 57 52.14 – 4.86
Nagpur North 58 53.55 -4.45
Kamptee 60 62.25 2.25
Ramtek 66 68.61 2.61