Allegations and counter-allegations continued between NDA and India Bloc leaders in Maharashtra amid controversy over news reports of Shiv Sena candidate’s aide’s phone being connected to EVM during counting of votes in Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat.
Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Vetkar won the Mumbai North West seat by just 48 votes. Amol Kirtikar of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) came in second. The Thackeray-led faction won nine Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, while Mr Shinde’s Sena got seven seats.
Soon after the news report surfaced, leaders of Uddhav Thackeray’s party demanded that the CCTV footage of the counting day be released.
The Election Commission has rejected the news reports and issued notices to the publishers.
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Mumbai North West Returning Officer Vandana Suryavanshi said the EVM is a standalone system and there is no need for an OTP to unlock it. “It is not programmable and does not have wireless communication capability. This is a lie being spread by a newspaper,” she told the media.
However, the election officer admitted that the personal mobile phone of Dinesh Gurav, a data entry operator for Jogeshwari Assembly constituency, was found with an unauthorised person – Mr Vetkar’s brother-in-law Mangesh Pandilkar – and action was being taken. “Data entry and vote counting are two different aspects. An OTP enables the ARO to open the Encore login system for data entry. The counting process is independent and has nothing to do with the unauthorised use of the mobile phone, which is an unfortunate incident and is being investigated,” he said.
The official said neither Mr. Waikar nor Mr. Kirtikar has sought a recount of votes. He said CCTV footage cannot be given without a court order.
Uddhav Thackeray’s son and Shiv Sena (Uttar Pradesh) leader Aditya Thackeray said the Election Commission does not have the courage to release CCTV footage of the counting centre. “We have always suspected that this government is tampering with EVMs. Even Elon Musk has expressed his views claiming that everything can be hacked. Despite several requests, the Election Commission does not have the courage to release CCTV footage of the counting day which will support our claims,” Mr Thackeray said.
Team Thackeray also got support from its ally Congress. Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the election result of the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat should be stayed. He said the Election Commission should call a meeting of all parties and hold a thorough discussion on the issue. “There should be an investigation into the unauthorised use of mobile phones. The FIR report has not been made public,” he said.
The political controversy over the news on the Mumbai North West seat started with a comment by X boss and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on social media. Responding to a post on Puerto Rico elections, Musk wrote, “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, although small, is still too high.”
The comment drew a sharp reaction from BJP leader and former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. He said Musk’s idea could be applicable to other places where voting machines are connected to the internet, but the BJP leader said EVMs in India are secure and isolated from any network and “there is no way around it.”
However, opposition parties pounced on Elon Musk’s remarks to question the EVM system. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the EVMs in India are “a ‘black box’ and no one is allowed to examine it.” Sharing Musk’s post and a news report on the election of Ravindra Vetkar, he said, “Serious concerns are being raised about the transparency of our electoral process. When institutions lack accountability, democracy becomes a sham and is prone to fraud.”
Samajwadi Party chief and Congress ally Akhilesh Yadav shared Musk’s post with a note: “Technologies are meant to solve problems, if they cause problems, their use should be stopped.”
Reacting to Mr Gandhi’s remarks on EVMs, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said if the Congress leader does not trust EVMs, he should resign and contest again.
He said, “Rahul Gandhi has won from two places. The same EVMs were placed there too, so he should say that the EVM machines were faulty everywhere and he should resign and contest the election again.” “According to him, where he gets good seats, the EVMs are fine and where he gets less seats, the EVMs are faulty. Will this happen?” Mr Shinde said.
The Shiv Sena leader, whose revolt against Uddhav Thackeray had split the party and toppled the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra, questioned the Opposition’s stand on EVMs.
He said, “Wherever the Maha Vikas Aghadi has won, the EVM machines are working properly. But wherever they have lost, they (the opposition) are raising objections on the machines. What kind of behaviour is this?”