Gujarat election 2017: EVM worries get a new lease of life

Among other things, the first phase of Gujarat Assembly election that concluded this evening in Saurashtra, Kutch and South Gujarat’s as many as 89 Vidhan Sabha seats have ended up in grave doubts about a possible tweaking and tinkering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) when the polling was feverishly on.

This is for the first time that such allegations have cropped up during the very process of voting. Earlier, similar allegations have been made during, or after counting of the votes only despite the fact that the mode of campaign by contestants has largely gone electronic.

No less a person than the Congress’ Gujarat point-man and the party candidate from Porbandar, Arjun Modhwadia, has reportedly complained to the Election Commission with screen shots of at least three EVMs getting connected to mobile phones through Bluetooth. The move has palpably hoisted EVMs too for a verdict by the Election Commission at least.

Seldom before has any other Assembly polls weighed as much as is the case this time in Gujarat. These will decide not only the shape and contours of the State Legislature for the next five years but also virtually the fate of the country. Stakes in Gujarat are so high as to serve a signal and set the tone for the next general elections that are still about a year-and-a-half away.

Any truth in what has been alleged today about the role of EVMs in the outcome of polls that in quite a few cases have been rolling out a wholesale verdict right from municipal to national levels of polls ever since 2014 would also determine whether these machines survive as a means and instrument of voting or give way again to good old ballot papers.

This is more so since the first ever possibility of EVMs playing a role in a favourable verdict the BJP has been cornering came through a TOI report dated April 3, 2014 from Jorhat in Assam and this can still be accessed.

Ever since this report there have often been complaints about EVMs and the truants played by them through elections or prior to them during trials.

Yet, on Saturday evening, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made light of allegations about certain EVMs getting connected to mobile devices via Bluetooth by saying that these could be “alibis in preparation of a possible defeat (of Modhwadia and his party, or Congress)”.

Whatever may be the case but doubts thrown at EVMs today about their impartial role and use through voting is going to be further tested on December 14 during the second phase of polling. Anybody now can test what Modhwadia and his cohorts are alleging by using Bluetooth and to ensure safety the Election Commission would have to ensure that this does not happen anymore.

Doubts about the neutrality of EVMs had earlier led the Election Commission to bring in VVPAT, or Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. The step has obviously not been taken to be as foolproof as it was expected to be by the stakeholders and more so by the Opposition, or mainly the Congress party.

The issue regarding EVMs is now only too conspicuous because of it being constantly discussed in TV debates. RSS representative Seshadri Chari called these apprehensions, in one such debate, “technical glitches” in a few out of tens of thousands of machines used during the first phase of Gujarat polls. And when his Congress contestant in the debate Amiben Yagnik protested, Chari exhorted her to wait until the results come out on December 18, saying that in case her party wins, the wild allegations made by it may well backfire upon the party.

Chari’s point is in quite sharp contrast to BJP’s ‘Mission 150’ that has been touted throughout the campaign by the party’s top boss Amit Shah and his troupe to point to the possibility of winning a staggering 150 of 182 Vidhan Sabha seats in Gujarat.

And as the turnout in Saturday’s first phase of polling is said to be 68 per cent by the Election Commission against 71 per cent in the 2012 Assembly polls, a measure of the voters’ mood is not that easy to be had. This is more so since the anti-incumbency of 22 years of BJP governance on which Congress has been banking on so much should have shot up the poll percentage as is generally the case when a ruling dispensation is dumped by the electorate.

Yet, in Gujarat’s case, the last Assembly polls were geared up to hoist Narendra Modi as a candidate for the post of Prime Minister by most Gujaratis. Observers and poll pundits say that to ensure this people of the state overwhelmingly voted for the BJP and they were successful in this as in less than a year, or in September 2013 to be precise, Modi was declared as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. He rode to power at the Centre less than a year after that. But, now the electorate may not be as warm to him as the case has once been and so they might not be coming out to vote in as many numbers as was the case in the past, they add.