Even as the voting is underway in Madhya Pradesh, where BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan is fighting for his 4th term as chief minister, Congress stalwarts seem to have given up already. At 9:38 am Congress leader Digvijaya Singh tweeted that EVMs are malfunctioning in constituencies where Congress is strong.
कई ऐंसे मत दान केंद्रों पर जो कॉंग्रेस के पक्ष के हैं ईवीएम ख़राब होने के समाचार आ रहे हैं। कॉंग्रेस के पोलिंग एजेन्ट्स को दो बातों का ध्यान रखना चाहिये।
— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) November 28, 2018
He urged the Congress polling agents to keep track of EVMs and to check by doing mock-voting to see if EVMs are working properly, hinting at the ‘EVM hacking’ theory.
१- जो मशीन ख़राब होती है और जो उसके स्थान पर बदली जाती है उनके नम्बर ज़रूर नोट कर लें
२- जो नयी मशीन आती है उसे वोटिंग चालू करने के पूर्व ५०-१०० वोट डाल कर चेक ज़रूर करें।— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) November 28, 2018
Five minutes later, at 9:44 am, Congress leader Kamal Nath, too, tried to float a conspiracy theory with regard to EVMs malfunctioning.
प्रदेश भर से बड़ी संख्या में ईवीएम मशीन ख़राब व बंद की जानकारी सामने आ रही है…
इससे मतदान प्रभावित हो रहा है….मतदान केंद्रो पर लम्बी लाइनें लग गयी है…इतनी बड़ी गड़बड़ी केसे ?
चुनाव आयोग अविलंब इस पर निर्णय ले…तत्काल बंद मशीनो को बदले…— Office Of Kamal Nath (@OfficeOfKNath) November 28, 2018
Congress’ Chief Conspiracy Officier (unofficial) Digvijaya Singh had earlier, too, in a series of tweets tried to prove that EVMs can be ‘tampered’ at ‘coding stage’ while writing the software. That they could be ‘pre-tampered’. This could also be the reason he urged the Congress workers to ‘mock-vote’ about 50 times to check if the person you vote for and the person who gets your vote are same.
Politicians and many Congress-friendly journalists regularly float the ‘EVMs are hacked’ theory during elections or if BJP wins any elections. During the Gujarat Assembly Elections last year, journalist Sagarika Ghose had spread rumours that EVMs are getting hacked via Bluetooth. Pro-AAP blog Janta Ka Reporter, too, which is famous for spreading fake news, misquoted Chief Election Officer in a bid to malign the EVMs. Aam Aadmi Party MLA ‘demonstrated’ EVM hacking on a toy EVM which could be bought off the Internet.
The EVM obsession is so high that recently while trying to ‘protect’ EVMs in Chhattisgarh, a Congress worker died of cold after being outdoors for hours.
With EVM malfunctiong, hacking, tampering theories already making rounds, especially by Congress leaders, one wonders if they are building ground for ‘moral victory’ in case the results on 11th December are not in their favour.
