On the 1st of May, IndiaToday journalist Rajdeep Sardesai faced embarrassment at the hands of former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N. Gopalaswami after he asked him about the alleged delay in Election Commission publishing voter turnout data of phase I and phase II.
The former CEC appeared on Rajdeep Sardesai’s show on IndiaToday on Wednesday. Insinuating that somehow the alleged delay of 11 days in publishing voter turnout data was alarming, Saredesai asked that the opposition parties are raising questions over the manner in which the election commission released the voter turnout figures of the first two phases of the general elections. He asked Gopalaswami if he was surprised over this alleged delay.
To this, the former CEC called out Sardesai for making misleading claims and said that just because Sardesai is not interested in checking the already available data that does not mean the ECI caused any delay.
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— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) May 1, 2024
Official data is available on the website on the third day: Former CEC N Gopalaswami #NewsToday with @sardesairajdeep | Full show: https://t.co/KZx9SArMzc#ITVideo #EC #LokSabhaelections2024 #ElectionCommission pic.twitter.com/aECsRMMA9S
“This eleven days and four days (after which the final data was published on 30th April) is your imagination. The information is available the very second day. It is available in their [EC’s] website. Everybody can see it. If you don’t care to see it then its alright. You don’t see it, they are publishing [the data] and still getting a bad name,” Gopalaswami said.
The former CEC further advised the Sardesai to “stop the nonsense” and not to try to be helpful to the opposition parties. “I thought of suggesting to them, stop this. Don’t try to be helpful to them. Stop this nonsense,” he said.
Despite the embarrassment, Rajdeep Sardesai did not refrain from peddling the opposition’s misleading claims. Following this, the former CEC explained to him how exactly the ECI officials operate after the polling concludes.
“Every polling station at the end of the day, the form 17C is filled in where the voter turnout figure is incorporated. Copies are signed by the polling agent and all of them have their copies. By the night, the approximate figures are put out. But when all these 17C forms go with the returning officer. He takes it one by one and keeps on updating the election commission’s website. When he completes it, all the data is put up there. If you have to see…” Gopalaswami said adding that making the claims about 11 days delay is “out of ignorance”.
Behaving the like true loyalist of the opposition, Sardesai decided to trust more on what “some people” told him than the former CEC as he reiterated his claim that there was a 11 day delay in publishing the final official data regarding the voter turnout of phase I and II.
N. Gopalaswami, however, made it clear that even “final official data” is published on ECI’s website on the third day as the voting phase concludes and that the data released on 30th April was just a compilation the ECI has put out. He further deemed it “unfortunate” that the ECI is publishing additional information and the opposition parties and their media allies are finding fault in it.
“If you don’t have time to look at the data, they [ECI] are trying to be helpful to you and release the data in the manner that you can look at it in newspaper or as a handout to the press. The data is available already,” he said adding that even all the contesting candidates know which polling station voted how many through their polling agents who are given form 17C…” Gopalaswami said.
Notably, in Form17C for Returning Officer, all relevant data, from the identification number of EVMs, Control Unit, Ballot, and VVPATs to total number of electors assigned, number of voters registered in Form17A, number of voters not allowed to vote under 49A and number of votes recorded per machine are included besides other details. In the second part of the same form, the results of counting are recorded.
Rajdeep Sardesai then claimed that the ECI’s data published on the 30th April was revised and that the same revision should have been done within 2 to 3 days. However, Gopaplaswami raised a strong objection to Rajdeep’s haranguing and said: “It [data] was available after the third day and then no change is made at all,” he said and explained the procedure involved in releasing the polling data.
The IndiaToday journalist later in the conversation tried to drag the former CEC into the political war of words and asked him what would he tell the opposition parties which are raising questions over the neutrality of the election commission and insinuating that somehow the results are being ‘influenced’. To this, Gopalaswami made it abundantly clear that he is not supposed to answer what the politicians are saying. He has simply explained the process of how the data is collected and published.
Opposition accuses ECI of causing delay in putting out final voter turnout data, Mamata Banerjee raises question over EVMs
Notably, the claims around the alleged delay in publishing voter turnout figures were made by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and the CPM(I). On Wednesday, Jairam Ramesh said: “Late last night, after a completely unacceptable delay of 11 days for Phase I and 4 days for Phase 2, the ECI finally released the voter turnout data. However, two issues have emerged in the ECI’s latest data release – 1. The number of registered voters per Lok Sabha and the assembly constituencies included in that Lok Sabha constituency have not been published along with the turnout data by the ECI, as is usually done. 2. The breakup of the number of votes and not just the vote percentage – as is typically made available by the ECI – is still not available,” Ramesh posted.
Late last night, after a completely unacceptable delay of 11 days for Phase I and 4 days for Phase 2, the ECI finally released the voter turnout data. However, two issues have emerged in the ECI’s latest data release –
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 1, 2024
1. The number of registered voters per Lok Sabha and the…
“The whole point of releasing such data is to make it comparable over time. The ECI’s failure to release voter turnout data in the same format frustrates the very purpose of it all. One can only hope that political games are not being played through such data,” he added.
Meanwhile, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee while addressing a poll rally said: “There are lots of doubts and the commission must address it. There are apprehensions of manipulation of results by the BJP as several EVMs were missing for a long period.” She also raised questions over the credibility of the EVMs and went on to demand that the information about the company manufacturing EVMs should be made public.
Election Commission refutes the false allegations levelled by the opposition
The opposition and its media allies are spreading lies despite the fact that the ECI has stated that the final voter turnout numbers released on Tuesday were the same as those collected from constituency-specific voting figures on the poll body’s voter turnout app on 20 April evening, a day after the first phase ended, and 27 April evening, following the conclusion of the second phase.
Speaking to TOI, an ECI source said that form 17C, which records turnout at each polling station in absolute numbers at the end of voting, was inspected on the evening after polling day, and the turnout was 66.14 percent for the first phase and 66.71 percent for the second phase.
“There was absolutely no delay in such disclosure on poll day… the narrative about non-disclosure of data is completely unfounded, without proper appreciation of the system in place. Leave alone constituency, even booth data of votes polled is available with the candidates and cannot be changed at any stage. Candidates use this data of votes polled station-wise to keep check on counting day,” ECI functionary said.
Rajdeep Sardesai’s past incidents of humiliation
Interestingly, this is not the first time that Rajdeep Sardesai has been schooled by a guest on his own show. In March 2017, India Today Conclave published a 6-minute interview of Rajdeep Sardesai with business tycoon Mukesh Ambani. Sardesai introduced him as the most powerful person in the country. When he asked Ambani how he felt when he introduced him the way he did, Ambani said, “I don’t believe that. I do not take you seriously.” Sardesai, humiliated by the ‘most powerful person’, could only say, “Are yeh kya baat hui (What are you saying).”
On December 14, 2021, during a debate on India Today where former Indian Captain Sunil Gavaskar was a panellist, he told Rajdeep it would not matter if Sardesai would not agree with him as he would not lose sleep over it. The debate was about the alleged rift between cricketers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, which has been making rounds the whole day.
In January 2022, during a news debate on Devendra Fadnavis’ appointment as Deputy Chief minister after serving as the chief minister of Maharashtra, Rajdeep Sardesai asked BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla if that would affect the former CM, to which Poonawalla reminded the India Today journalist how he was once the Editor-in-chief of CNN IBN, and now he is working as Consulting Editor of India Today, which has not affected his stature or respect.
The greatest of all embarrassments for Sardesai was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2007. PM Modi was attending Hindustan Times Leadership Summit as a guest. Sardesai, who was interviewing him, asked if he was sorry about what had happened in 2002.
Then-CM Modi said, “A person who had got a chance to become anchor is trying to impose his propaganda while going out of the line from the topic for which I was called for in this Summit.” He questioned the organizers and asked them to decide how they wanted to move ahead with the interview.
