Trinamul Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Thursday accused the Election Commission of "shamelessly" hiding the total voter turnout data.

The remarks came a day after the EC told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the "indiscriminate disclosure" of station-wise voter turnout data and posting it on its website will cause "chaos" in the election machinery which is already in motion for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

Quoting a report which said the poll panel told the apex court that disclosing voter turnout numbers as per Form 17C will take time, the TMC MP, in a post on X, said the 'Handbook for Returning Officers' published by the ECI says all that the Returning Officer has to do is "press the close button", and this immediately displays the total number of votes polled to be recorded in Form 17.

"Very important and concerning: How the Election Commission is openly lying in the Supreme Court," Gokhale said in his post.

"On the issue of not disclosing total voter turnout (Form 17) data, the SC asked ECI as to why it was not being done in this election. Note that these numbers have been provided immediately in all previous Lok Sabha elections. The ECI said in SC: 'There is no issue but it takes time'. What's the truth?" he said.

Quoting the 'Handbook for Returning Officers', Gokhale said, "In that, it CLEARLY says that all that the Returning Officer has to do is 'press the close button'. And this immediately displays the total number of votes polled to be recorded in Form 17. So how long does it take? Literally three seconds." "Why is the Election Commission lying openly in the SC? Why is total votes polled data being hidden so shamelessly? Something very rotten is going on and the ECI is actively being a part of it," he alleged.

In the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the EC also dismissed as false and misleading the allegation that the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections saw an increase of "5-6 per cent" in the voter turnout data released on the day of polling and in the subsequent press releases for each of the two phases.

The poll panel said "indiscriminate disclosure" and public posting of Form 17C - which gives the number of votes polled in a polling station is not provided in the statutory framework and could lead to mischief and vitiation of the entire electoral space as it increases the possibility of the images being morphed.

The EC stated this in an affidavit filed in response to a plea of an NGO seeking a direction to the poll panel to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of the conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

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