With the 16th Lok Sabha elections just a week away, political controversies are escalating. A recent report from TOI revealed a case of an electronic voting machine (EVM) malfunction during a mock poll in Johrat, Assam. The report states that every time a button was pressed, the vote registered for BJP. This has sparked yet another political controversy both online and offline.
State chief electoral officer Vijyandra said, “An EVM in Jorhat was found malfunctioning yesterday. It is a defective machine and it was noticed when EVMs were readied in front of representatives of all political parties. We will not send the faulty unit to any polling station.”
An EVM consists of two units, a control unit and a balloting unit. Both units are connected with cable. The balloting unit is a small box-like device, on top of which each candidate and his or her election symbol appears. The voter selects his candidate by pressing the blue button.
Congress Committee general secretary Ranjan Bora has already lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India and demanded thorough inspection of all EVMs in not just Jorhat, but the entire state. He further stated that the incident has fueled suspicion in their minds that EVMs may have been tampered to favour a particular political party.
The faulty EVM has opened up a Pandora’s Box on whether EVM can be tampered with or not, with the Lok Sabha elections standing right next to the door.
It also goes without saying that the whole controversy has been taken forward to Twitter by AAP and Congress party supporters, who are now blaming the BJP and Narendra Modi for possible EVM tampering.
Hashtag #BJPRiggedEVM has been trending at the top of India Twitter Trends from the early part of the day. Some of the tweets that are making the buzz are listed below:
#BJPRiggedEVM pic.twitter.com/oUF9RFvL3a
— Mayank Gour (@mayank_gour) April 3, 2014
https://twitter.com/sharmarohit_/statuses/451668378118156288
Congress lodged a complaint with the EC demanding thorough inspection of all EVMs. #BJPRiggedEVM
— Congress in News (@CongressInNews) April 3, 2014
#BJPRiggedEVM in Assam ! Such is the desperation of Modi becoming PM ! What does @Swamy39 has to say on this ?
— रचित सेठ (@rachitseth) April 3, 2014
Now that d EVM trick is out- BJP's new campaigning. #BJPRiggedEVM @scotchism @BabaGlocal @BabysJokerParty @_Angrytau pic.twitter.com/tvmLhHV15Z
— Ji Saheb (@JiSahebJi) April 3, 2014
BJP really love @Swamy39 so they knew after bjp lose he will start blaming EVM thats why #BJPRiggedEVM
— Riyaz Ahmed (@simpleriyaz) April 3, 2014
So BJP now resorts to EVM fraud. And they blamed Congress for same for 10 years. Same modus operandi for #PaidMedia #BJPRiggedEVM
— Scotchy (@scotchism) April 3, 2014
https://twitter.com/Shajan_G/statuses/451597627097096192
Regarding #BJPRiggedEVM, @Swamy39 wrote long back about RSS/BJP EVM Tampering and suspected 1999 Election was rigged http://t.co/jDBfy0GfZ2
— Joy (@Joydas) April 3, 2014
Recently Twitter witnessed another war on April Fools’ Day and #BJPRiggedEVM is one more addition to the growing list of Twitter fights between political parties. We are going to see more drama in the coming days.
Image credit: NDTV