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EVM Tampering
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Election Commission of India's response on the pleas seeking verification of the burnt memory and symbol loading units in EVMs in compliance of its judgement. A special bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta asked the poll panel to refrain from erasing or reloading data during the verification process. The pleas sought a direction to the poll panel to check and verify burnt memory/micro-controllers and the symbol loading unit (SLU) of electronic voting machines (EVM). The bench asked the poll panel to file its response within 15 days and explain the procedure adopted and posted the matter in the week commencing March 3. Irked over suppression of the fact relating to a similar petition which was dismissed as withdrawn, the bench said it would not hear a fresh plea filed by former Haryana minister and five-time MLA Karan Singh Dalal seeking a policy for the verification of EVMs. The bench issued notices to the
Opposition members staged a demonstration on the steps of the Maharashtra Vidhan Bhawan here on Monday and raised slogans against the use of EVMs in elections. The protest was held on the opening day of the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur. Leader of opposition in the state legislative council Ambadas Danve led the demonstration of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders, who called for "saving" the Constitution and democracy and opposed the use of EVMs. They raised slogans like "EVM Hatao Desh Bachao", "EVM Hatao Constitution Bachao" and "EVM Hatao Democracy Bachao". Danve was joined by Congress legislators Vijay Wadettiwar, Nitin Raut, Bhai Jagtap and Vikas Thakre, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Bhaskar Jadhav, Varun Desai and Sachin Ahir, and NCP (SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad. Talking to reporters, Danve claimed the Electronic Voting Machines were "dangerous" for democracy and that people were opposing the use of EVMs in elections. "We think the EVMs should be remov
Heavy police security was deployed on Tuesday at a village in Maharashtra's Malshiras assembly segment after some locals cast doubt on the EVMs and insisted on conducting a "re-election" with ballot papers, officials said. The Malshiras sub-divisional magistrate on Monday imposed prohibitory orders, under section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, from December 2 to 5 in the area to avoid any conflict or law and order situation due to the "repoll" plan of some locals, an official said. Residents of Markadwadi village under Malshiras segment in Solapur district have put up banners claiming a "repoll" will be held on December 3. The village comes under the Malshiras assembly constituency, where NCP (SP) candidate Uttam Jankar defeated BJP's Ram Satpute by 13,147 votes in the November 20 state polls, the results of which were declared on November 23. Though Jankar won the seat, Markadwadi residents claimed he polled less votes in their village against Satpute which was not
Heavy police security was deployed on Tuesday at a village in Maharashtra's Malshiras assembly segment after some locals cast doubt on the EVMs and insisted on conducting a "re-election" with ballot papers, officials said. The Malshiras sub-divisional magistrate on Monday imposed prohibitory orders, under section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, from December 2 to 5 in the area to avoid any conflict or law and order situation due to the "repoll" plan of some locals, an official said. Residents of Markadwadi village under Malshiras segment in Solapur district have put up banners claiming a "repoll" will be held on December 3. The village comes under the Malshiras assembly constituency, where NCP (SP) candidate Uttam Jankar defeated BJP's Ram Satpute by 13,147 votes in the November 20 state polls, the results of which were declared on November 2. Though Jankar won the seat, Markadwadi residents claimed he polled less votes in their village against Satpute which was not
The BJP on Sunday accused billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk of making a "huge sweeping generalisation" by calling for eliminating EVMs, saying his views may apply to the US but not to India. In a recent post on X, Musk had said, "We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high." Countering the Tesla CEO's criticism of EVMs, BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, "This is a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong. Elon Musk's view may apply to the US and other places - where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet connected Voting machines." "But Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media - No connectivity, no bluetooth, wifi, Internet. ie there is no way in. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed," the former minister of state for information technology said on X. Chandrasekhar also
A poll official on Sunday said an EVM was a standalone system that does not need an OTP to unlock it. Vandana Suryavanshi, returning officer of Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, was reacting to a report in Mid-day newspaper about a kin of Ravindra Waikar, the Shiv Sena candidate who emerged victorious there by a wafer thin margin of 48 votes, using a mobile phone connected to an EVM during vote counting on June 4. "The EVM is a standalone system and there is no need for an OTP to unlock it. We have issued notice to Mod-day newspaper under sections 499, 505 of the Indian Penal Code for defamation and spreading false news," Suryavanshi said in a press conference on Sunday. Mangesh Pandilkar, brother-in-law of Waikar was booked on Wednesday for allegedly using a mobile phone at a counting centre on June 4, when results of the general elections were announced, a police official said on Saturday. The Vanrai police station official said the case was registered for Pandlikar's his
Senior Congress leader and Chhattisgarh's former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday alleged that several Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPAT units were changed after polling in the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat, from where he contested the elections. Baghel claimed the numbers of several EVMs used in the April 26 voting in Rajnandgaon provided by the Election Commission of India (ECI) does not match with details of machines of the booths concerned mentioned in Form 17 C. However, the returning officer of Rajnandgaon denied any irregularities or mismatch in numbers. In a post on his X handle on the Lok Sabha poll counting eve, the former CM said, "The Election Commission had given the numbers of the machines which were used in the voting. This includes (numbers of) ballot unit, control unit and VVPAT. "According to the information mentioned in Form 17 C after the voting in my constituency Rajnandgaon, the numbers of several machines have changed. The booths where the ...
NCP (SP) candidate from Maharashtra's Ahmednagar Lok Sabha seat, Nilesh Lanke, on Wednesday claimed a person breached the three-tier security and tried to reach a godown where the EVMs were kept after polling in the constituency. Lanke posted on X a CCTV grab while claiming the person tried tamper the close-circuit camera and reach the godown. The Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leader raised questions over the security deployed there. "A person easily breached the three-tier security around one of the godowns where EVMs are stored. He tried to tamper the CCTV cameras, but my colleagues intervened in time," he claimed in the post on X. "If my colleagues can catch the person, I wonder how the three-tier security system could not stop the unidentified person. Does it mean the system itself is biased and trying to steal democracy? It looks like the administration is being a mere spectator," he alleged. Lanke was pitted against BJP's Sujay Vikhe Patil in the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha ...
Electronics Corporation of India Ltd and Bharat Electronics Ltd have refused to disclose the names and contact details of the manufacturers and suppliers of various components of EVMs and VVPATs under the RTI Act citing "commercial confidence", according to RTI responses from the PSUs to an activist. Activist Venkatesh Nayak had filed two identical Right To Information applications with the ECIL and BEL, seeking the details of the manufacturers and suppliers of various components used in the assembling of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPATs). The VVPAT is an independent vote verification system which enables electors to see whether their votes have been cast correctly. The ECIL and the BEL, public sector undertakings under the Ministry of Defence, manufacture EVMs and VVPATs for the Election Commission. Nayak also sought a copy of the purchase orders for the components from both PSUs. "Information sought is in commercial confidence.
The CPI(M)-led LDF said on Thursday that it would lodge a complaint with the Election Commission over a few voting machines allegedly having recorded votes wrongly in favour of the BJP candidate during a mock poll conducted in Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency. Talking to PTI, senior CPI(M) leader K P Satheesh Chandran alleged that there were instances where two or three voting machines exhibited such errors during the mock poll on Wednesday, and a complaint will be filed before the EC. CPI(M) leader M V Balakrishnan is contesting against Congress leader and current Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan and BJP's M L Ashwini in the constituency for the April 26 Lok Sabha polls.