After the defeat in assembly elections in Haryana, the Congress party has again started to blame Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). However, they have brought some changes to the allegation. In a bizarre accusation, the party claimed that EVMs with different levels of battery charge gave different results. However, the Election Commission has denied these allegations, and explained that while fully charged batteries are inserted in EVMs before the polls, the charge level continues to come down with the use of the machines in mock poll, actual voting and counting.
The allegations were made in a press conference addressed by senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera. They alleged that in EVMs with 99% battery charge, BJP was winning, while in EVMs with lesser charge levels like 60-70 per cent, Congress was winning.
Jairam Ramesh said, “We are getting constant complaints. We were being told that EVMs that had 99 per cent battery were leading to our loss, while we won when voters voted on machines that had 60-70 per cent batteries.” With this claim, the party tried to allege that the EVMs showing more votes for BJP were tampered with, and that is why they were showing more battery charge.
The Congress leader claimed that such complaints were received from Hisar, Mahendragarh and Panipat. He said, “Have you understood this conspiracy? Where there was 99 per cent battery in EVMs, the BJP won. Where there was less than 70 per cent battery, the Congress won. If this is not a conspiracy, then what is it?”
Ramesh said that there are serious allegations regarding the poll process, and that is why they can’t accept the Haryana election results. He added, “Ye tantra ki jeet hai aur loktantra ki haar. We have been constantly complaining to the Election Commission since afternoon. We will give our complaints to EC. Serious questions have been raised by our candidates and this result is against the will of the people of Haryana. Under such circumstances, we cannot accept the results.”
How Congress claims are baseless
Congress basically wanted to claimed that after the polls, some EVMs were tampered with to give more votes to BJP, and their batteries were changed during the process. However, the party keeps forgetting one basic fact about elections in India, any tampering with EVMs is not possible as they are always under the vigil of security forces and the agents of candidates.
The EVMs are kept in strong rooms after the elections, and candidates and/or their authorised agents are allowed to keep an watch on them 24×7 till the day of the counting. While the agents stay in a camp set up outside the strong room, they can watch live CCTV footage from inside the strong room. If they spot anything suspicious, they raise an alarm and lodge complaint.
There is no report of any Congress candidate or agents lodging any such complaint. Therefore, the allegation of the Congress party is baseless. Moreover, there is no evidence that EVMs showing more votes for BJP had 99% battery charge. It is just an allegation by the Congress party without any evidence.
ECI denies allegatoins
The Election Commission of India responded to the claims and dismissed them. Official sources of the ECI told the media that there is link between battery charge levels and voting numbers shown in EVMs. The officials explained that alkaline batteries are used in the Control Unit of the EMVs, and new batteries are inserted on the commissioning of the EVMs for the election in the presence of candidates or their agents, and then the machines are sealed.
The battery provides a voltage between 7.5 and 8 volts. When the voltage is above 7.4, the battery capacity is displayed as 99 per cent. As the battery charge is consumed with the use of the EVM for voting, the charge level is displayed as coming down gradually from 98% to 10%. The EVM works till the battery has over 5.8 volts. Before reaching 10% charge, the control unit starts displaying a low battery warning.
The ECI further explained that the capacity of the battery on the counting day depends upon the mock poll conducted on the control unit, the actual poll and the initial voltage of the battery which can vary between 7.5 to 8 volts.
ECI denies allegations of slow counting
The Congress leaders also alleged that there were delays in publishing the results of the Haryana elections, and Jairam Ramesh submitted a formal complaint with the ECI. He claimed that ECI was playing ‘mind games’. Ramesh tweeted, “Like the Lok Sabha elections, in Haryana, we are again witnessing slowing down of uploading up-to-date trends on the ECI website. Is the BJP trying to build pressure on administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends.”
Here is my letter to @ECISVEEP on the inordinate and unacceptable delay in updating trends in the Haryana assembly elections pic.twitter.com/Lvq747seTz
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 8, 2024
In the letter to the ECI, Jairam Ramesh claimed that there was unexplained slowdown in updating results on the ECI website. Notably, early in the morning, Congress was leading the results, but soon BJP overtook it and eventually won the election with 48 seats.
The Election Commission responded to the letter and rejected his claims, calling the allegations ill founded. The Commission said that the counting of votes was carried out as per Rule 60 of Conduct of Election Rules at the designated counting centres and by the designated authorities following the Statutory and Regulatory regime.
The ECI remined the Congress party that as per rules, the entire counting process in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir was unfolding in the presence of candidates, observers and micro-observers. The response by the ECI categorically stated, “There is nothing on record to substantiate your ill-founded allegation of slowdown in updating of results.”
The ECI provided publicly available data from its website which showed that approximately 25 rounds of counting across all constituencies were being updated every 5 minutes on Tuesday, which testifies dissemination of counting process in a speedy manner.
Yogendra Yadav tried to create confusion by making it a technical issue
In the meanwhile, Ichchadhari protester Yogendra Yadav tweaked the Congress allegations on EVMs and claimed it to be a technical issue. He repeated the Congress allegation that EVMs showing more votes had 99% battery level, and therefore the unspoken allegation is that those EVMs were tampered with after the polls. He said that these are serious allegations, adding that this need investigation.
Yadav also claimed that he could not understood the ECI response to the allegation because it is ‘too technical’. He said that as he is not an engineer, he does not understand things related to batteries. However, he claimed that this is a serious matter and ECI needs to probe and explain everything.
हरियाणा चुनाव का अप्रत्याशित परिणाम देखने के बाद से दोस्तों के फ़ोन आ रहे हैं: ‘क्या हुआ, इसे कैसे देखा जाए, आगे का रास्ता क्या है?’
— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) October 8, 2024
मेरा जवाब: pic.twitter.com/cmIfpiKsqU
While Yogendra Yadav thinks the topic of battery level in devices is so technical that it needs an engineering degree to understand, that is not the reality. In today’s age, everyone uses battery-operated devices, and everyone knows that when fully charged, a device showed 100% charge, and as the battery is drained with use, the displayed charge level continues to come down.
There was nothing else in the ECI response. They said new batteries are inserted in EVMs before elections in the presence of candidates and then the EVMs are sealed. The ECI added that with the use of EVMs, the battery strength continues to come down, which is what happens with every battery-operated device. The ECI response basically explained that EVMs use alkaline batteries, and their charge drain with use, this is a simple fact about batteries, not requiring an engineering degree to understand.
Notably, while mobile phones and most electronic gadgets use Lithium-ion batteries, most low-power devices like remote controls, toys, clocks etc use alkaline batteries.
