Congress claims doubting EVMs as an election strategy worked for party in MP and Rajasthan

New Delhi, Dec 8: The Congress raised the issue of electronic voting machine (EVM) in the Madhya Pradesh elections again and again so that anti-incumbency against the Madhya Pradesh government could be made more pronounced.

And the most interesting story is that the Congress has gradually made a momentum that those who are against the EVM are also against the BJP. This was very interesting experiment of the Congress that seems to have worked for it if the claims made by the Congress is to be believed.

The Congress feels that suspicion created against EVM in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections has traveled to Rajasthan elections as well and had helped the Congress there as well. How far foolproof EVM could be but the Madhya Pradesh elections have made it clear that not only the common voter but even the government employees have been doubting them. Even such employees doubted the EVM who were involved in the election process.

Election analysts say that this is a matter of concern as it affects all the efforts made towards conducting free and fair polls. It was the responsibility of every official and government to tell that free and fair elections through EVM is possible but they did not do it.

Election commission of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have done a lot on more voting but they did not do anything to clear the air that free and fair election is possible through EVM which was a big issue in the Assembly elections. Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) is also being used in these elections so the voters can get assurance that their vote had gone to the party they wanted to vote for still it failed to do much on this.

Election commissioner of Madhya Pradesh Kanta Rao said that no stone left unturned to clear the doubt of political parties about EVMs. According to him, this is no more an issue. But elections have been altogether different as a big section of voter was of the view that EVMs always remain within the reach of the ruling party which can temper with it as per its wishes. Call it a campaign of the Congress or understanding of voters, they did not hesitate to say that so what if you vote for the choice of your candidate but EVM is managed by the particular party.

This was also very interesting that despite doubting EVM people came out to vote in big number. The Congress leaders are saying that to unite their voters and encourage more voting their complain about EVM worked a lot.