A survey in Karnataka – on voters’ confidence in EVMs, or Electronic Voting Machines – has become the latest flashpoint between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Knowledge-Attitude-Practice survey of 5,100 voters – by the Karnataka Monitoring and Evaluation Authority, which is under the federally-administered Department of Planning and Statistics – said it found ‘overwhelming public trust in EVMs’ during the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Nearly 84 per cent expressed confidence in EVMs and a similar number said the election was ‘free and fair’.
The Congress, however, responded with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge questioned the agency that designed and conducted the survey, and stressed it had not been sanctioned or ordered by the state government.
“First, this is not sanctioned by the state government,” he told NDTV, “Apparently the Election Commission requested the State Election Commission… sought the help of an NGO which is run by Balakrishnan or Balasubramanian who, if I am not mistaken, happens to be the author of a book for the Prime Minister and works with the PM’s Office very closely. What do you expect?”
“And what is the data size? 5,000 people in 110+ constituencies or something…”
“What the BJP has to explain is the ‘vote chori‘ in Kalaburagi… in Aland…” he said referring to claims by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi that the EC and BJP colluded to carry out mass deletion of voters before the 2023 the Karnataka election and 2024 Lok Sabha poll.”
Aland is in Kalaburagi in northern Karnataka, and is the home turf of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, as well as senior MLA BR Patil, who represents the constituency.
‘Vote chori‘ red flags surfaced after Patil and Kharge, claimed proof of vote-deletion attempts, and wrote to the state’s Chief Electoral Officer. Patil claimed fraud applications were filed to delete 6,994 votes from marginalised communities that traditionally vote for the Congress.
In October sources in Karnataka Police, which is investigating the Congress’ allegations, told news agency PTI a data entry team could have been paid money – a few lakh rupees in total – to delete a certain number of voters from the roll. At least six people were involved, sources said.
Reports said Rs 80 was paid for every successfully deleted voter, and that there were requests to delete nearly 7,000 voters from the rolls before the 2023 state election.
Kharge reacted strongly to these reports, declaring on X, “The latest findings confirm what we’ve been saying all along… over 6,000 genuine voters were struck off the rolls through a paid operation ahead of the 2023 elections in Aland.”
EVMs are a contentious topic in the electoral landscape, with opposition parties, led by the Congress, routinely accusing the BJP and Election Commission of having rigged the machines to favour the former. The EC has also come under fire from the opposition over the Special Intensive Revision, i.e., voter re-verification exercises, of electoral rolls months before elections.
The EC and BJP have junked the claims and blamed the Congress for “baseless” allegations.