Maharashtra Civic Polls: Shocking EVM Counting Discrepancies
Friday, March 03, 2017
A series of “coincidences” cast a huge cloud of doubt on the freeness of the election process during the recent Maharashtra Civic Poll.
It was much
publicized that CM Devendra Fadnavis had to hastily skip his Pune rally as
being greeted by empty chairs. Pune was never a stronghold of the BJP. In fact,
BJP was reported to virtually struggle to get crowds for their rallies in Pune.
And yet to the surprise of all including voters, BJP emerged the largest single
party in Pune. BJP MP Sanjay Kakde, who had played a crucial role in getting
criminals into the BJP fold, had accurately predicted the results for Pune. He
had vowed to give up politics if his prediction proved wrong. Opposition
parties now cite this claim as proof that the ruling party had manipulated the
poll results.
It is very difficult
at the civic poll level to hit a bullseye in poll prediction for a number of
reasons. CVoter last year turned out an excellent performance hitting the bullseye
for the Bangalore Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls in respective to vote share
but did not show similar accuracy with seat shares since at the civic poll
level, seats are won and lost by margins as low as single digits! But in the
recent Maharashtra Civic Polls, a well known polling agency missed their vote share
prediction by a mile [those predicted being much higher than their touted
Margin of Error (MoE)] but hit a bullseye with their seat predictions!!
And these are citing
just two coincidences. And there are several more horrifying such coincidences and
controversies which this QUINT article below talks about. The question is what
if these controversies get repeated in the March 11th results of the
5 State Assemblies???
On the evening of 23
February, an unexpected development shocked Maharashtra as counting for local
body polls in the state was ending. Violence erupted in Panchavati in the heart
of Nashik city following complaints of tampering of EVMs (electronic voting
machines).
The city BJP chief’s
son was declared the winner from the ward, but the Shiv Sena claimed that the
total of the votes received by each candidate exceeded the total number of votes
cast.
This led to clashes
between Shiv Sena and BJP workers in the streets. Soon, mobs began vandalising
and burning vehicles. Police had to resort to lathi-charge and firing in the
air to disperse the crowd of 800 people. Nine policemen, as well as some local
residents, were injured in the rampage.
A similar charge of
EVM fraud swirled in Pune, only the reaction was thankfully non-violent. In
Yerawada ward, 15 candidates from different political parties registered a
complaint against the Returning Officer (RO), alleging “misappropriation” of
EVMs during the counting of votes.
They claimed that a
total of 33,289 votes were cast, but 43,324 votes were counted. They demanded a
re-poll using ballot paper. A police complaint has been registered against the
RO.
As the State
Election Commission, which conducts local polls, turned down the demand for
re-polling, a united opposition first held a protest meeting. As more cases
emerged, they took out a mock funeral procession of replicas of EVMs on
Tuesday, which were then symbolically cremated at the Vaikunth crematorium.
In Mumbai, independent candidate Shrikant Shirsat got zero votes at the booth near his residence in Saki Naka in the western suburbs.
Similar complaints
are being reported from various parts of the state. Efforts are being made to
collate data. A body called the Lokshahi Bachao Andolan has been formed in
Nashik to collect data related to alleged tampering of EVMs.
In Nagpur, the NCP
has threatened that it won’t let the mayor take oath unless an inquiry is
conducted into the “EVM scam”. In nearby Amravati, an all-party bandh was
called on Monday over the use of EVMs. It received a good response, with market
places remaining closed.
Read the full story:
Click HERE
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