Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 5: The allegation of manipulating the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) is back. This time it is levelled by the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh who alleged that many of the BJP leaders knew about the results of the polling two days before the counting and said any machine with a chip could be hacked.
The state Congress president Kamal Nath, who before the elections was bubbling with confidence of a comfortable Congress victory, stopped short of levelling EVM hacking charge but said many of the sitting Congress MLAs did not get even 50 votes in their respective villages and wondered how it could be possible if there was no malpractice with the voting machines.
Soon after he alleged EVM hacking was behind the BJP’s poll victories, Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh put up a new post on X to double down on his electoral malpractices charge.
The Congress MP has shared two screenshots — one from Facebook and the other from the results page of the Election Commission of India website. “Look at these two pictures closely. BJP functionary writes how many votes each candidate received in Khachrod Assembly seat and what is the margin. Importantly, this post was made two days before the counting – December 1. Now match this with the results,” Mr Singh wrote in Hindi.
At the Nagada-Khachrod constituency in Madhya Pradesh, BJP’s Dr Tejbahadur Singh Chauhan defeated the Congress’s Dilip Singh Gurjar by a margin of 15,927 votes. The Facebook post Mr Singh referred to was put up from the profile of Anil Chajjed, who describes himself as a “digital creator.” It was created in 2015 and has over 5,000 followers. The profile has several photographs of Mr Chajjed with the winning BJP candidate and at the party’s rallies. The profile has posts supporting the BJP.
In a December 1 post, Mr Chajjed writes that 1,78,364 votes were polled in the Assembly constituency in Ujjain district. The post said the BJP candidate got 93,000 votes, while the Congress nominee got 77,000. The numbers, predicted two days before counting, were strikingly similar to the final vote counts of 93,552 (BJP) and 77,625 (Congress), respectively.
Asked about Mr Singh’s allegation, BJP leader and MLA Rameshwar Sharma said, “He (Singh) doesn’t trust anyone, he doesn’t trust EVM, he doesn’t trust himself.” The BJP has not confirmed or denied if Anil Chajjed is a party functionary.
Days after the BJP won Assembly polls in three heartland states – Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh — Mr Singh has raked up the debate over how reliable EVMs are. “Any Machine with a Chip can be hacked. I have opposed voting by EVM since 2003. Can we allow our Indian Democracy to be controlled by Professional Hackers! This is the Fundamental Question which all Political Parties have to address to. Hon ECI and Hon Supreme Court would you please defend our Indian Democracy?” he has said in a post on X.
Mr Nath said some former MLAs have complained they did not get even 50 votes in their village expressing surprise over the Madhya Pradesh results but stopping short of alleging electoral malpractices.
He expressed surprise at the poll results, stressing that the public mood was in the Congress’s favour. “Even you know what the mood was. Why are you asking me? Ask the people,” he told reporters. “Some MLAs are telling me that they did not get 50 votes in their village. How is that possible?” he said.
Most of the exit polls, barring a couple of them had also predicted Congress victory in MP. On exit polls which forecast landslide BP win, Nath said they were conducted to “create an atmosphere”. “If someone knew the result beforehand, he can get exit polls done,” Mr Nath said, refusing to elaborate further and stressing that he would talk to others before making further remarks.
