Former Rajya Sabha MP Amar Patnaik on Sunday asserted that the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was the first party in Odisha to bring concerns about “discrepancies between votes polled and votes counted” in the state to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Speaking to news agency ANI, Patnaik told that the BJD also raised the issue of “alarming increases in votes polled after 5 pm” and expressed “serious misgivings” about potential errors in both the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the manual processes involved.
“BJD is the first party in the state to raise the issue of discrepancies between votes polled and votes counted, as well as the alarming increase in votes polled after 5 pm… BJD had taken it to the ECI. We had raised serious misgivings not only about possible errors in the machine but also in the process itself, which could be manual,” Amar Patnaik told ANI.
He accused the ECI of not taking the BJD’s concerns seriously, describing the commission’s response as more “opaque” than transparent. “EC’s response was more opaque rather than transparent… We felt that EC is trying to avoid providing information to the political parties,” Patnaik added.
“Our demand is that the EC should henceforth conduct a process audit right from the preparation of the electoral roll till the announcement of results,” he further stated.
#WATCH | Bhubaneswar, Odisha: On voter discrepancies in Odisha, BJD Leader Amar Patnaik says, "BJD is the first party in the state to raise the issue of discrepancies between votes polled and votes counted, as well as the alarming increase in votes polled after 5 pm… BJD had… pic.twitter.com/cdmIgDNfPs
— ANI (@ANI) August 10, 2025
Earlier in March this year, a BJD delegation went to the Election Commission and had formally requested it to conduct a periodic “process audit” of the entire election process, to be carried out by independent auditors or the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
In a letter to the ECI, the regional party also called for these audit reports to be made public, a practice already in place in several other democratic countries.
“We had mentioned in our earlier Memorandum that discrepancies indicated therein were unusual and showed that there was either machine (EVM) error or manual error (during data entry) or process error or a combination of all these. Since doubts have been raised in the minds of voters about conduct of free and fair elections on account of such discrepancies, which further get strengthened due to non-furnishing of Forms 17C Part I & II despite repeated written requests since last seven months, the BJD would like to suggest/demand the following in the interest of free and fair elections in the country,” the party said.
“The Election Commission should conduct a periodic ‘process audit’ of the entire election process by independent auditors or the CAG and make such report public as is being done in several countries where democratic elections are held,” the BJD said as quoted by ANI.
It also demanded that a mechanism be developed for involving citizen groups in co-monitoring the election process from inception to the end.
