Massive EVM Failure Affects Voting in Kairana, Leaders Demand Repolls

As Kairana Lok Sabha Constituency went to bypolls on Monday, the malfunctioning of the EVMs and VVPAT emerged to be the biggest story from the polling ground. The extent of EVMs malfunctioning grew severe as the day progressed.

More than 200 EVMs and VVPATs from the polling booths of all the five assembly segments of the Lok Sabha were reportedly malfunctioning, which led to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to raise allegations of “scientific rigging” in the byelection. Interestingly, even the BJP leadership raised the issue of EVM malfunctioning and urged the EC to conduct repolls at some booths.

The RLD's candidate in Kairana Tabassum Hasan, who got the support of Opposition parties, wrote to the chief election commissioner complaining about malfunctioning EVM and VVPATs in her constituency. She alleged that despite raising the issue at the state and national level, the local administration was not dealing with the issue. The voters were being deprived of their right and hence the Election Commission must urgently send engineers and technicians to repair the machines, she wrote. 

In her complaint to the EC – a copy of which is with Newsclick – Tabbassum said that by the noon time, “EVM related issues have been reported in booths in each of the five Assembly segments in Kairana. Shamli: 47 booths, Kairana 13, Gangoh 48, Nakud 38, and Thana Bhawan 9”. The cases of EVM malfunctioning increased as the day progressed, she alleged.

There was substantial amount of anger among the electorate as they faced severe difficulties in casting their vote. 

Many of the local Muslim leaders complained that after the EVMs stopped functioning, many of the voters in Muslim area of Kairana returned home from the booths because they were fasting and they could not stand in the long queues in the terrible heat. This was deliberate, they alleged.

“Muslims are fasting, so they preferred to turn up in the morning hours and waited for their turn in the queue. In areas like Kairana town, for instance, which has strong Muslim population or in Garhipukhta in Thana Bhawan, which is known to be a Muslim stronghold. Both the areas saw many huge lines outside the polling booths as the EVMs stopped working,” said Mahmood Hasan from Kairana, a local active member of civil society. 

“But people who are fasting cannot wait for long in this terrible heat. So, they had no option but to leave. I have a strong feeling that it was a deliberate strategy in Muslim areas for stopping people from giving their votes,” he added. 

Hasan made it a point to mention that while the voters faced difficulties, they were left clueless. A large numbers of the EC officers and observers had switched off their phones, he added. In the afternoon, many WhatsApp groups were actively appealing to the Muslim voters to come back to the polling booth to “defeat those who wanted to divide the country.” 

Sudhir Panwar, a senior Samajwadi Party leader told Newsclick that the officials were “officially hostile” and apathetic to the concerns of the electorate. “It seems that the brief given to the officials by the ruling regime was that they had to be hostile, extremely rude and apathetic to the voters. The BJP government could not come up with any better last minute strategy to win,” he said.

The problems of EVMs malfunctioning aggravated to the extent that in some polling booths, the angry voters confronted the police, which led to police lathicharge in a booth in Ballmajra village in Kairana in which three people got injured.  

Going by the ground reports, the malfunctioning of EVM was so widespread that 158 EVMs had to be replaced in polling booths of Nakud and Gangoh Assembly segments. Later, the RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary said: “So many malfunctioning EVMs point to some sort of systematic anarchy!”

The local SP MLC Udaiveer Singh told Newclick that it was “scientific rigging”. “It is scientific rigging because EVMs in 90 per cent polling booths of Muslim and Dalit areas were selectively targetted. When we tried to approach the local officers, their phones were switched off. No engineers were available. The administrative officers are behaving very rudely and irresponsibly. It seems that the local officers have been told to ensure victory at any cost,” he said.

Later SP State President Naresh Uttam Patel complained to the EC. He said that through faulty EVMs, the state government was trying to ensure that people cannot go and vote. 

The Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav joined the group pf leaders to flag the issue. “Is this a technical fault or failure of election management or a conspiracy to deprive people their voting rights? At this rate, the foundations of democracy will be shaken,” he tweeted.

Importantly, it was not only Muslim leaders and Opposition parties, which complained about the massive EVM failure. 

By 5 pm, even the BJP candidate from Kairana Mriganka Singh went public with the complaint of EVM malfunctioning. “According to my reports, there was massive technical issue in the EVMs and there was complete breakdown of systems. My supporters went back homes without voting as the EVMs were not working. My party has taken up this extremely important issue with the EC,” she told the media.

Before she spoke to the press, a delegation led by BJP UP Vice President J.P.S. Rathore met the UPCEO demanding immediate restoration of EVMs and possible re-polling on booths where voting  had to be stalled for a long time. He submitted a list of 67 booths in Kairana where faulty EVMs have been reported. The party leaders also complained to the Commission that the local election officers and booth officers were not paying heed to complaints raised by BJP polling agents.  Despite the widespread reports of EVM failure, the District Magistrate of Shamli Viram Singh said the VVPAT machines faced some issues and not the EVMs. Singh claimed that 3 pm onwards, the voting booths were running smoothly.