The Gujarat units of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have entered into a war of words over allegations of tampering with electronic voting machines, following the sweeping victory of the ruling party in the local self-government body elections.
While the BJP accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of becoming a “tool” in the hands of the Congress, the Congress demanded “re-polling” through the old ballot paper method to ascertain the “real mood of the voters”.
State BJP spokesmen I.K. Jadeja and Vijay Rupani said that, contrary to the claims of the Deputy Central Election Commissioner, Vinod Zutshi, most of the EVMs used in the elections to the municipal corporations, municipalities, and district and taluk panchayats were supplied by the ECI to the State Election Commission or were purchased from the Bangalore-based company approved by the ECI.
ADVERTISEMENT
Over 13,000 of these EVMs were used during the parliamentary elections last year in the State.
“If the ECI and the Congress had faith in the EVMs then, why are they doubting the credibility of the machines now?'.
The BJP leaders also said 41,000 EVMs were procured by the State Election Commission from the Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore, a government enterprise under the Defence Ministry, while 30,500 EVMs were given by the ECI.
ADVERTISEMENT
Of these, 20,500 EVMs were used in 12 districts in the State, Mr. Jadeja said, while pointing out that the Congress owed its victory in the Tapi district panchayat and about 20 taluk panchayats to the same EVMs, the credibility of which it was doubting now.
Refutes charges
Refuting the Congress' allegation that “machine magic rather than Modi magic” caused the party's debacle in the local elections, Mr. Jadeja said the time was ripe for the Congress to do a “deep soul-searching” as to why the people of Gujarat had rejected the party outright.