With Lok Sabha Election on EVMs, Modi and BJP Expected to Win
Now it is being argued that the so-called ‘Modi wave’ in the 2014 Lok Sabha election was not driven by voters, but it was driven by voting machines.
By Rakesh Raman
A delegation of the representatives of some national and state-level political parties met the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday to complain about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The leaders of over 20 opposition parties urged the Commission to ensure that 50% results of EVMs are matched and verified with voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs) before the declaration of results in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Although the Commission did not make any commitment, it said willy-nilly that it will examine the EVM issues raised by the opposition parties – which claim to represent 70% of India’s electorate.
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The opposition parties reported about various EVM manipulations such as attacks on strong rooms where EVMs are kept, power outages, failure of CCTV cameras, and mismatch between votes polled and votes counted.
They also allege that when EVMs malfunction, strangely they start voting in favour of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While the opposition parties have been demanding elections on ballot papers instead of EVMs, they are now ready to hold the Lok Sabha election on EVMs saying there is hardly any time left to arrange ballot paper voting.
This article is part of our exclusive editorial section that focuses on Lok Sabha election 2019. Click here to visit the editorial section.
With the acceptance of the conditional use of EVMs, the opposition parties have embarked upon a suicidal mission, as it will be almost impossible for them to win if the Lok Sabha election is held on EVMs. If they are so worried about EVMs, they should demand election only on ballot papers even if election is delayed for a few months.
Although Congress – which opposes EVMs – recently defeated BJP in three state elections, it is said that BJP allowed Congress to win in small elections so that Congress should not complain against EVMs in the countrywide Lok Sabha election in which Modi will be contesting. It is said that BJP tampers with EVMs cleverly only to win crucial elections.
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While the election authorities work under the Modi government, under some pretext they will refuse to entertain the opposition complaints about EVMs. In that case election will be held on EVMs, and irrespective of the VVPAT verification Modi’s BJP can hope to win at least 300 Lok Sabha seats.
Now it is being argued that the so-called ‘Modi wave’ in the 2014 Lok Sabha election was not driven by voters, but it was driven by voting machines.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications on different subjects.
