Can democracy trust EVMs?

Maharashtra’s opposition leaders and some voters question the machines, citing the unusual vote margins and patterns in the 2024 Assembly election.

The attempt by Markadwadi village to conduct its own paper ballot election has raised concerns about the reliability of EVMs throughout Maharashtra. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Markadwadi, a little village in Malshiras tehsil, Solapur district, Maharashtra, has made its mark on the national political map. Villagers, although not all, while rejecting the outcome of the November 23 Assembly election, decided to hold a “repoll” with ballot paper on December 3. They cited a possible manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).

They prepared an entire election process, including the printing of ballot paper and the installation of a ballot box. But the State administration “warned” the villagers of stern action, if they voted in this manner. Finally, the newly elected MLA Uttamrao Jankar, of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) mediated between villagers and the administration and managed to thwart the plan.

This incident received tremendous national coverage. Those who had raised doubts about the outcome of Maharashtra election, where Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) lost to the BJP-led Mahayuti, praised the “courage” of Markadwadi villagers. Mahayuti supporters and leaders, meanwhile, termed the “repoll” a “recipe for anarchy”.

Markadwadi’s population comprises largely of the Dhangar (shepherd) community, a semi-nomadic tribe, within the OBC category. Uttam Jankar, who contested against Ram Satpute of the BJP, belongs to the Dhangar community. Malshiras has been the bastion of Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, an NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader, who has, for decades, been one of the State’s most influential political figures. The Patil family is Maratha. But after the 2009 delimitation process, Malshiras became an SC-reserved constituency. Patil had held the constituency for 40 years before that. Patil’s son Ranjitsinh joined the BJP in 2019, and his nephew, Dhairyashil, contested and won the 2024 Lok Sabha election on an NCP (Sharad Pawar) ticket. In 2009 and 2014, the Patil family was with the NCP (then united).

Jankar had never been on good terms with Patil. In the 2019 Assembly election, Jankar contested as an NCP candidate. At that time, Satpute, an aggressive worker of the BJP, was fielded by the party in Malshiras. Satpute, a favourite of Devendra Fadnavis, belongs to Marathwada’s Beed district. The Patil family worked for Satpute. In the 2019 Assembly election, Jankar lost to Satpute. But, in Markadwadi village, Jankar bagged 1,346 votes against Satpute’s 300. Meanwhile, over the past five years, a rift between Patil and Satpute grew: Patil saw it as a threat to his empire posed by the BJP.

Sharad Pawar, early this year, tried to mend fences between Jankar and Patil. It was decided that Jankar would contest the Malshiras Assembly election and that the Patil family will support him. In return, Jankar would help Patil in the Malshiras and Madha constituencies to get Dhangar votes. Dhairyashil won the election. In Markadwadi, as the major factions joined hands, Dhairyashil got 1,021 votes while BJP’s candidate got 466.

But in the Assembly election, in Markadwadi, where Patil and Jankar were still in the pact, and Jankar was a candidate, he received only 843 votes; Satpute of the BJP received 1,003. Jankar won the Assembly election across the constituency with 13,000 votes. But the lead was expected to be more than one lakh and was thus, in reality, just 10 per cent of the expectations. This irked Jankar’s supporters. Markadwadi’s response—the ballot paper.

The voting was scheduled for December 3. The villagers had made every preparation. But the Solapur district administration issued prohibitory orders. When the villagers were clearly adamant on ballot paper voting, the police issued a stern warning. If the voting process began, all participants would face strict action, as per the law, the police said. Understanding the gravity of the situation, Jankar asked the villagers to stop. And it worked.

Meanwhile, the returning officer of Malshiras Assembly constituency clarified that EVM voting in Markadwadi had been completed in the presence of representatives of all the candidates. “A mock poll, to the proper sealing of EVMs, were followed. No political representative from Markadwadi booths complained on voting day,” reads the officer’s explanation.

EVMs are not in the line of fire in Markadwadi alone. Across Maharashtra, the election results are being viewed with scepticism. Opposition leaders are demanding a 100 per cent counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT, another term for EVMs). Prithviraj Chavan, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who lost this election from the Karad South constituency, did not doubt the efficacy of EVMs on the day of the results. But, by November 30, Chavan changed his stand slightly. “I want to ensure that the faith of the voters on the process remains intact. The way these [Maharashtra Assembly election] results have come, I am also doubtful about the process. Therefore, we have two demands. The hundred percent counting of VVPAT and technical scrutiny of the EVMs by world-known data and chip engineers need to be done,” Chavan told Frontline. Chavan has made immense contributions to software-related technologies in Maharashtra. He introduced the Marathi font in computers. So, his words about the EVMs holds huge weightage in the State.

Prithviraj Chavan, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who lost this election from Karad South constituency, said he was “doubtful” about the process. | Photo Credit: H.S. MANJUNATH

MVA leaders have been continuously raising doubts about the results. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut have described the results as a “robbery of democracy”. Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole has demanded that CCTV footage of all voting booths be made public. Patole raised doubts about the sudden increase of voting from 6 pm onwards on voting day. It was found that the ECI had announced a voting percentage of 58 per cent until 5 pm on November 20. But by the next day, the final voting percentage rose to 67 per cent.

Renowned economist Parakala Prabhakar posted concerns on X too. According to Prabhakar and Patole, voting increased to 76 lakh after 5 pm in Maharashtra. This huge jump is being indicated as a possible sign of manipulation.

To these objections, the ECI issued another press statement: “Maharashtra has one lakh booths. That means an average of 76 people voting per booth in the last hour. As Maharashtra is a highly urbanized state, the people come in the evening for voting. This is not an abrupt or out of line jump in voting. The 76 lakh votes post 5 pm is possible.”

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) MLA Varun Sardesai held a press conference on December 2, where he raised doubts about the gap between postal ballot and EVM voting. He said, “MVA is ahead in 141 Assembly constituencies when postal ballots are counted. But it reduced to 46 once the counting of EVM is done. How is such a big difference possible? This means there is some kind of manipulation of EVMs.” Rohit Pawar, MLA of NCP (Sharad Pawar) challenged the EC over the checking of EVMs. “In 2017, ECI had challenged [voters] to hack EVMs. But then it did not allow anyone to touch the EVMs. Also, the machines were selected by the ECI. If it allowed us to select the machines and touch them, we could come up with our experts. There will be people from BJP also and it will happen before the media. This exercise will clear the doubts about the EVM,” said Rohit Pawar.

‘A mockery of democracy’

These allegations are being countered by BJP and its allied parties. They say it reflects the double standards of MVA. “When MVA won the Lok Sabha election, that was considered the people’s mandate. But when we won the Assembly, they called it a mockery of democracy. MVA leaders should learn to accept defeat. They should introspect about what exactly has gone wrong,” said BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.

Beyond the politicians’ regular verbal tussles, this time social activists are also taking stands against EVMs. Veteran social activist Baba Adhav (95) held a three days’ fast in Pune against malpractices in democracy as well as the misuse of EVMs. Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, Ajit Pawar as well as several social activists visited him. Baba Adhav said the Assembly election results were “dubious” and out of sync with the public mood. “Who has won or lost does not matter. The results are [contrary to] the mood of the public. To protest this, I am on the fast,” said Baba Adhav.

The EVMs have been viewed with suspicion for the past 15 years by all parties. But this time the concerns are serious, and being discussed by everyone. What is clear is that the institutions that should win the trust of all in a democracy, no longer do so.