Congress, BJP Argue over EMV Rigging in Maharashtra Polls

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Shashi Tharoor Asks EC to ‘Break Silence on Allegations against EVMs’

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, November 28: The Congress is beginning to spotlight claims of alleged rigging of the EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is arguing that the Opposition still remains in denial of causes for defeat of the party in state polls.

“This is the most serious issue to emerge from the Maharashtra elections. I have never joined those who alleged that EVMs could be tampered with; I believe they are a vast improvement on paper ballots and that’s why they were brought in to our elections,” Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said in a long post on X.

The Congress leader argued that “whether entire EVM machines could be added to the count, dramatically inflating voter turnout figures, is another issue altogether. The charges made here raise serious and legitimate questions that the Election Commission must answer”.

Tharoor tagged a video interview of Prakala Prabhakar, who is rumoured to be estranged with his wife Nirmala Sitharaman, with The Wire in which he alleged an increase of 76 lakh votes from 5 pm of the polling day to the morning of the counting day.

The Election Commission in the past has dismissed claims of the voters’ turnout rising after 5 pm. The Congress had made similar allegations after the Lok Sabha elections.

Tharoor said that “the silence on the subject is baffling and discredits the entire process that supports and legitimizes our democracy. Of course, paper ballots are still not the answer: if illegitimate EVMs could be added to the count, so could illegitimate ballot-boxes stuffed with false votes.”

The Congress leader argued that “it’s not the machines that are the issue, but the machinery of the electoral process. On that, the Election Commission has a constitutional duty to set the public’s minds at rest.”

The BJP general secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh also joined the issue of the alleged manipulation of the voters’ turnout. In a post on X, Santhosh said: “The magnitude of defeat of INDI Alliance & the Congress in Haryana & Maharashtra will make opposition & its eco system keep EVM issue boiling.”

The Congress after the loss in the Haryana Assembly elections had made allegations of the EVM battery charge issue to allege manipulations. The Congress had claimed that the EVM charge showed strength of 60-70 per cent on seats where the party won while on others’ they were almost 99 per cent.

“It’s strategical step from opposition to keep its voters, middle level leaders & workers away from analysing failure of their leadership,” claimed Santhosh.

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