EVM, again, is made the villain of the piece after the Maharashtra Assembly elections gave thumbs up to the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance. A disappointed Congress Working Committee felt the integrity of the electoral process was “severely compromised” by the Modi establishment. The grand old party bore the main brunt – not just in Maharashtra but also in the recent assembly polls in Haryana. It expected a sure win in Haryana but faced a humiliating defeat. The prospects were evenly placed in Maharashtra, but the INC-SS-NCP alliance bit the dust. The alliance involving the Congress and the National Conference of the Abdullahs won power in Jammu and Kashmir; and so did the Congress-JMM alliance in Jharkhand. In both the states, the BJP alliance failed to win power. While this should set at rest the rumours of EVM manipulations by the Modi government, a humbled Sharad Pawar came up with his own theory: that, there could be a method whereby “larger” states are appropriated by the BJP and the “less important” states given to the opposition to create an impression that the election process is blemish-less.
Electronic systems cannot be completely faultless. Manipulations cannot be detected with the plain eye. A set of smart techies might be able to play havoc with the system even when EC’s strong arguments are that this is not possible. Notably however, in recent rounds, the first strong suspicion about manipulation of the EVMs surfaced in Andhra Pradesh where popular chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy lost the assembly polls and a “tainted” Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam outwitted the ruling YSRC. Naidu had strong backing from the techies in the Telugu states as also the huge swarm of them in the US. They raised funds for his polls and got involved in the poll campaign. There’s no proof yet though speculations abound about a play of mischief there. Yet, truth might lie elsewhere. What’s common between the electoral successes of the Congress in Karnataka, followed by Telangana, and in AP, Maharashtra etc., are the lures the winning sides have made through their manifestos. Women were mainly targeted with goodies like free cooking gas, monthly doles, free bus travel etc. Siddaramaiah did this to great effect for the Congress in Karnataka, Naidu caught on and did the same in AP, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde wooed women through his Ladki Bahin Yojana. It is safe to assume that the large army of India’s poor women fell for these promises and voted for such leaders and parties in state after state. The rival sides were caught napping and they fell by the wayside.
