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Maharashtra election: No VVPAT-EVM mismatch found, says EC amid MVA's allegations
The opposition alliance in Maharashtra - MVA - has been raising questions about the legitimacy of EVMs after facing a setback in the state elections 2024.
There were no mismatch found in any of the VVPAT slips matching with their concerned Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) numbers, Chief Election Officer of Maharashtra - S Chockalingam - said on Tuesday amid intense debate in the opposition camp over the credibility of following their defeat in the recent Maharashtra assembly elections.
Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. After a voter presses the button on the EVM against the chosen candidate, the VVPAT prints a slip containing name of the candidate and the election symbol and drops it automatically into a sealed box.
The opposition alliance in Maharashtra - Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has been raising questions about the legitimacy of EVMs after facing a setback in the state elections 2024.
Maharashtra's Solapur district has emerged as the epicentre of anti-EVM protests after villagers unsuccessfully tried to hold a mock "repoll" using ballot papers last week.
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Responding to the allegations over EVMs, Chief Election Officer Maharashtra issued a statement on Tuesday, saying, “During the Maharashtra assembly elections 2024 as per Supreme Court of India and Election Commission of India guidelines, 5 VVPAT slips at each assembly segment were to be counted, to match it with the numbers in EVM.”
“In all 288 assembly segments, a total number of 1445 VVPAT slips were counted on the same day of counting, which was 23rd November, and there was no mismatch found in any of the VVPAT slips matching with their concerned EVM numbers,” the letter by Chief Election Officer Maharashtra said.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), also known as Mahayuti in Maharashtra, got a landslide victory by winning 235 seats, of which BJP won 132, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena won 57 and Ajit Pawar's NCP won 41 seats.
The MVA, comprising of the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction and the Sharad Pawar camp of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won 16, 20 and 10 seats.
Anti-EVM protest in Solapur
On Sunday, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) chief Sharad Pawar allaged a lack of voter confidence in the process in an address at an “anti-EVM” event in Solapur district.
Addressing the "anti-EVM" event at Markadwadi village in Solapur, the NCP-SCP chief said, "Elections happen. some win some lose...but in the recently concluded election in Maharashtra, people have doubts over the election process and voters are not feeling confident. We go to elections through EVMs. Voters go to vote and come out with confidence but some results have created doubt among people."
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole also visited the village under the Malshiras assembly constituency to express solidarity with villagers.
Patole alleged that attempts are being made to abrogate the voting rights of people by using Electronic Voting Machines in elections.
Markadwadi village hit headlines last week after a section of villagers tried to conduct mock "re-polling" using ballot papers expressing doubt about the credibility of EVMs. Their attempt was thwarted by the administration and police, leading to the registration of cases.
Villagers have alleged that the winning candidate from Malshiras constituency, Uttam Jankar who belongs to NCP (SP), should have secured a huge margin but fell short due to discrepancies in EVMs.
