In the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly polls, EVMs at various polling booths across state malfunctioned with people complaining of their votes going to BJP irrespective of the button they pressed.
As many as on 865 polling booths ballot units, control units of electronic voting machines and VVPAT machines were replaced due to technical glitches in 46 seats in Marathwada region as per officials.
At Navlewadi village of the Koregaon constituency in Satara, the voters’ alleged that all votes went to BJP no matter what button the voter pressed on the EVM.
In Satara, Lok Sabha by-poll was conducted simultaneously with the state assembly election after the sitting Member of Parliament, Udayanraje Bhosale resigned and quit the Nationalist Congress Party to join the BJP.
This issue came to light around 11 am when over 200 voters had voted and some of them reported that the slips coming of VVPAT were showing BJP’s election symbol, ‘Lotus’, no matter which button they pressed. When the villagers brought this to the notice of the polling booth officers, they did not pay any attention to the claims made.
NCP Legislator Shahshikant Shinde went to the booth as soon as he received a call from some voters and our party workers informing him about the incident. “By the time I reached there, around 270 votes were cast in a similar manner. I suggested that a voter will cast his vote in the presence of the main poll official there to verify the claims,” said Shinde.
But when a person went to cast a vote, the machine suddenly developed some issue. Before he could press the button, the red light next to the BJP’s Lotus symbol blinked. The on-duty Election Commission officials acknowledged that the EVM was malfunctioning after voters raised doubts and objected to the EVM. After the inspection, it was found that the machine was faulty and was replaced soon.
The returning officer for the Koregaon Assembly segment refuted the claims made by the voters and said, “We replaced the machine, not because of their claims but because there was some issue with the pressing of the button. The replacement has nothing to do with these claims. Before polling commenced in the morning, a mock poll was held in the presence of all polling booth agents, and at that time, no one had raised any objection. Polling went on smoothly till 4 pm.”
