Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh again questioned the reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and held a demonstration at his residence in Bhopal on Wednesday to claim that the EVM could be hacked as the VVPAT machine attached to the EVM does not record votes properly.
Mr Singh, along with a Gujarat-based computer engineer Atul Patel, told media persons that the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips should be handed over to the voters and they should drop them in the ballot box.
The duo made a demonstration where 10 votes were cast in favour of imaginary symbols like ‘Banana’, ‘Apple’, and ‘Watermelon’. Four votes were given to Banana, Apple got five and Watermelon got one, in the demonstration.
“However, when the VVPAT slips were counted Apple got 8, Banana 3, and Watermelon 1, which proved that the machine was not recording proper votes,” Patel said.
“The votes polled for Banana were transferred to Apple as the machine was programmed to ensure the victory of Apple,” he pointed out, adding, “If the button is pressed for a longer period, it records multiple votes and not to the symbol that people have voted for,” he claimed.
He alleged that EVM hacking could result in a change of 30-40 per cent of votes polled.
The Congress leader also questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) and alleged that the ECI was not working independently but on the directions of the ruling BJP.
He demanded that the VVPAT slips should be handed over to the voters and they should drop them in the ballot box after verifying them.
Mr Singh also demanded that the Supreme Court should hear the matter in a full bench, and not a single bench, and its hearings should be conducted daily.
Referring to the recently-concluded state assembly polls, Mr Singh alleged that EVMs were allegedly tampered with on about 120 seats, which resulted in the increase of at least eight to nine percent vote share for the BJP.
The ruling BJP gave drubbing to the Congress in the MP Assembly polls in November 2023, with the saffron party winning 163 out of the 230 assembly seats, while the Congress was reduced to 66.