Citing ‘Spike’ After 5 pm, Cong Alleges Booth Capture in Telangana

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), a state unit of the Congress party, wrote to the Election Commission on Wednesday, 1 May, raising concern over the percentage of votes polled during the Lok Sabha elections after 5 pm. The letter, written by TPCC chairperson Marri Shashidhar Reddy, says there was an “unusual increase in the percentage of polling after 5 pm” on 11 April 2019, polling day, in 17 parliamentary constituencies in Telangana. Three significant observations are made in the letter: The average percentage of votes polled till 5 pm in the 17 constituencies was 59.08%. The average percentage of votes at the end of polling in all 17 constituencies was 64.32%. An overall increase in percentage of votes after 5 pm was close to 5.26%.