Gujarat Polls Result 2017 : On Gujarat result-eve, row over EVMs breaks out

Gujarat Polls Result 2017 : On Gujarat result-eve, row over EVMs breaks out

A fresh controversy erupted on twitter on Sunday over EVMs, with Hardik Patel alleging that there had been attempts to tamper them and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar countering that the use of these machines had made elections transparent.

Congress complained to the chief electoral officer that a WiFi connection, named ‘NaMo’, had been detected close to Surat and Mehsana strong rooms where EVMs were stored. In all, Congress submitted 44 complaints alleging use of bluetooth near polling booths in the two phases of elections.

In Surat, the district election officer directed Gandhi Engineering College authorities to suspend WiFi services on its campus following a complaint by Ashok Jirawala, the Congress candidate from Kamrej constituency.

On the eve of counting, Hardik tweeted that 140 software engineers of an Ahmedabad-based company had been employed to tamper with EVMs, especially in areas dominated by Patidars and tribals. “Attempts are being made to hack around 5,000 EVMs where winning margin is between 1,000 and 1,500 by deploying software engineers and hackers,” he said.

In Patna, BJP’s ally Nitish Kumar, however, supported the use of EVMs in elections. “One can criticise the use of EVMs out of fear of defeat, but EVMs have made elections transparent and no one can now be prevented from voting,” Nitish tweeted on Sunday.

Gujarat chief electoral officer BB Swain, without naming Hardik, said EVMs cannot be hacked and no doubt should be created around this, even as PAAS members said their cyber teams would be camping near three counting centres in Ahmedabad to keep a watch on Monday.

The Ahmedabad crime branch lodged a case against unknown persons for floating fake messages on social media about internet ban on Monday. Officials said fake messages on forged letterheads of EC were floated on social media platforms saying that internet services would be banned on the day of results.

“The letterheads had forged stamps and signatures of poll officials, which attracts offences under IPC as well as the IT act. We have written to social media platforms for identification of IP addresses of the devices from which messages were first floated,” said a senior Gujarat police officer.

Security was tightened around 37 centres across the state ahead of the counting of votes on Monday. The police said that licensed liquor shops would remain closed on Monday.

Many opposition leaders have earlier raised concerns over use of EVMs.

“The Central government has appointed those it wants as chief election commissioners. Not only Karnataka, all states have also doubted the credibility of EVMs. So we want to go back to the old system,” Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah’s had tweeted.

Earlier this year, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had said EVMs can be tampered with and there was a need to go back to ballot papers. After BJP’s victory in recently-held civic polls in Uttar Pradesh, SP president Akhilesh Yadav had questioned the veracity of EVMs. BSP chief Mayawati, too, had sought doing away with EVMs. Both demanded that 2019 Lok Sabha elections be held with ballot papers.

After 2017 UP assembly polls, RJD chief Lalu Prasad had said, “It is known that Gujarat is the hub of EVM manufacturing, hence tampering of EVMs cannot be ruled out.”