Days before the 2024 Lok Sabha election results were declared, the Opposition INDIA bloc asked the Election Commission (EC) to ensure that counting of postal ballots was completed before the final counting of the EVM votes, seeking a reversal of the poll body’s 2019 directive that allowed EVM counting to continue “irrespective of the stage of postal ballot counting”. The then Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, rejected the demand saying the process could not be changed midway through an election.
Now, more than a year later, ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, the EC – which is fighting fire over its Special Intensive Revision of poll rolls in the state – has withdrawn its 2019 directive.
In instructions issued to all states and Union Territories on September 25, the EC said: “The penultimate (second last) round of EVM/VVPATs counting shall not be taken up until the counting of postal ballot papers is completed at the counting centre.” It said the decision was taken “in order to further streamline the counting process and to provide necessary clarity to the counting of postal ballots”.
What was the Opposition’s stand?
The argument of the Opposition parties, demanding that postal ballot counting be finished first, has been that in case of a close election, it is possible to influence results by rejecting or validating postal ballots, which are counted physically, at the last minute. Postal ballots can be rejected, for instance, if they are incorrectly or illegibly filled out.
Arguing for a return to the pre-2019 position, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said last year: “The net result is that… EVMs can be counted and if the EVM counting gets over before the postal ballot … it will still be completed. In other words, the postal ballot counting and result need not be declared first. This is a grave and clear violation of a statutory rule. You cannot change a statutory rule through a guideline or a letter.”
Singhvi was referring to Rule 54A of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, that states: “The returning officer shall first deal with the postal ballot papers in the manner hereinafter provided.”
As recently as the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls, alleged discrepancies in postal vote counting were raised by the NCP (SP). Rohit Pawar, party chief Sharad Pawar’s grandson, while asking the EC to explain the discrepancies, said at the time, “When the postal ballots were counted, the vote share of Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) stood at 43.3% and 43.1%, respectively. However, after EVM votes were counted, the vote share of Mahayuti went up to 49.5% while MVA’s vote share dipped to 35% … Typically, the difference between the counting of votes through ballot papers and EVMs is not more than 3-4%.”
Similar concerns, about Opposition parties leading the NDA on postal votes but falling short overall, were also raised during the Haryana and Jharkhand Assembly polls last year.
During the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections last year, held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls, after state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena said postal ballots that do not have the seal of the RO would also be deemed valid, the YSRCP appealed to the EC seeking an “urgent” review of the order. The party claimed it “could compromise the integrity of the electoral process”. The Supreme Court later found “no merit” in the YSRCP’s petition.
In May 2019, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala moved the Kerala High Court alleging postal ballot fraud in the Lok Sabha elections. In his PIL, Chennithala demanded a probe alleging that a serious postal vote fraud had been practised by “pro-government” Police Association office-bearers at the behest of top government functionaries.
Who can vote by post?
Over the years, the number of postal ballots has increased significantly as more and more people have been allowed to vote by mail. As per the provisions in the Conduct of Election Rule, 1961, members of the armed forces, government employees posted outside India, or those deployed on election duty can vote by post, as can voters under preventive detention.
Special voters such as the President, Vice-President, Governors, Union Cabinet ministers, and Speakers also have the option to vote by post.
In 2019, the Law Ministry, at the EC’s behest, introduced a new category of “absentee voters”, who can now also opt for postal voting. These are voters employed in essential services — including Railway employees and media personnel — who are unable to cast their vote due to their service conditions. In 2020, the EC extended the facility further to senior citizens above the age of 80 and persons with disabilities.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the EC also introduced the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS), through which postal ballots are sent to service voters electronically instead of by post, though the ballots are still returned by post.
When the EC issued its 2019 directive, it had cited the considerable increase in the number of postal ballots since the introduction of the ETPBS as a reason for delinking postal ballot counting completely from EVMs.
What is the total share of postal ballots?
Since the EC began publishing complete data on postal ballots in the 1990s, the number of voters availing this service has consistently increased both in the Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls.
In the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, 3.6 lakh postal ballots were cast, or just 0.1% of all votes cast that year. In 2024, 42.82 lakh people cast their vote by post, making up 0.66% of the total votes – the highest ever share of postal ballots in general elections.
Between 2019 and 2024 alone, the number of postal ballots grew 53%. However, the highest rise was seen between 2014 and 2019, when the number of postal ballots grew 143%, the highest increase on record.
Postal ballots in Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2024 polls, Andhra Pradesh saw the most number of postal ballots, at 5.12 lakh, followed by Rajasthan at 3.76 lakh, Tamil Nadu at 3.11 lakh, Gujarat at 3.08 lakh and West Bengal at 2.93 lakh.
All but five states — Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Bihar — saw the number of postal ballots increase in 2024 from 2019. Telangana saw the biggest increase in the number of postal votes, growing by 959% from 20,603 in 2019 to 2.18 lakh in 2024. On the other hand, Maharashtra saw the biggest decline, of 12% from 2.73 lakh in 2019 to 2.39 lakh in 2024.
Similarly, from 2014 to 2019, only three states — Goa, Mizoram and Tripura — saw the number of postal ballots decline. The highest increase in this period was recorded in Manipur, where postal ballots grew by 2,081%, followed by Jharkhand at 1,435% and Punjab at 1,434%.
Since 2004, when the EC began publishing detailed breakdowns of postal voting, data shows the number of rejected postal ballots has increased more than fivefold, but their share of postal ballots has declined considerably. In 2004, 95,459 postal ballots were rejected, accounting for 15.77% of all postal ballots. In 2024, as many as 5.36 lakh postal ballots were rejected, but they accounted for 12.51% of all postal ballots. The exception was 2009, when the share of rejected postal ballots peaked at 21.54%.
Rejected postal ballots in Lok Sabha elections.
In state Assembly elections, too, including poll-bound Bihar, the number and share of postal ballots have been rising.
Over the course of the two most recent Assembly elections across states, only Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh have seen the share of postal ballots decline.
In the most recent set of Assembly elections, held between 2020 and 2025, Arunachal Pradesh reported the highest share of postal ballots, at 5.3% of all votes, followed by Sikkim at 4.8%, Goa at 2.81%, Kerala at 2.77%, and Himachal Pradesh 2.74%.
In Bihar, after declining for three consecutive Assembly polls, from 1995 to 2005, the number of postal ballots have increased considerably every election. In 1995, 2,209 postal votes were cast, accounting for 0.01% of all votes. By 2020, the number of postal ballots had risen to 2.68 lakh or 0.63% of all votes. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of postal ballots grew 2,896%, from just 951 to 28,493.