Malfunctioning EVM in Maharashtra’s Buldhana: Council chairman seeks report from government

Buldhana collector Vijay Jhade admitted that votes cast for an independent candidate were being transferred to the BJP candidate

Ramraje Nimbalkar, Maharashtra legislative council chairman, on Tuesday demanded a clarification from the state government over a controversy involving a malfunctioning Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) during the February zilla parishad polls in Buldhana.

In his letter to the state election commission, Buldhana collector Vijay Jhade admitted that votes cast for an independent candidate were being transferred to the candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Nimbhalkar, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, said, “The state government should submit a report in this matter.”

Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt raised doubts over Bharatiya Janata Party’s performance in the local body polls. “This proves that EVM’s can be manipulated and confirms that BJP candidates benefitted from this,” said Dutt. He accused the state government of brushing aside the issue.

In Buldhana, when the voters pressed the name of an independent candidate, the light next to the BJP candidate was activated. However, there is no evidence that this malfunction actually gave the BJP extra votes or affected the result. It did, however, raise doubts about the Election Commission of India’s assertion that EVMs were tamper proof. The commission even organised a hackathon last month, inviting political parties to hack EVMs.