Eknath Shinde's party refutes EVM tampering charge: 'If machine was hacked...'

Eknath Shinde's party refutes EVM tampering charge: 'If machine was hacked...'

Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) leader Sanjay Nirupam on Sunday rejected the allegations that a party MP's relative used a mobile phone at a counting centre, that was used to generate a One-Time Password (OTP) to unlock an electronic voting machine (EVM). Nirupam said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is running a smear campaign against Shinde's party.

Police registered a case against the brother-in-law of newly elected Mumbai North West Lok Sabha MP Ravindra Waikar for allegedly using a mobile phone at a counting centre in Vanrai on June 4, when the results of the Lok Sabha were announced.

According to police sources, the phone was used to generate an OTP to unlock the voting machine at the counting centre.

Countering the allegations, Nirupam said, "This is the first time I have heard that an EVM can be unlocked through a mobile. People like [Congress leader] Rahul Gandhi, [Senior Advocate] Prashant Bhushan, [Samajwadi Party chief] Akhilesh Yadav, and [RJD leader] Tejaswi Yadav have alleged EVM hacking. If it was hacked, then their candidates wouldn't have secured more votes in the Vanrai polling station," Nirupam said in a press conference.

Shiv Sena's Ravindra Waikar won the Mumbai North West seat by a margin of just 48 votes against Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) candidate Amol Sajanan Kirtikar. However, it was reported that an INDIA bloc candidate had won the seat before the Election Commission announced the result.

Nirupam said it was just the media that ran the news that Kirtikar had won while counting was still underway.

"Recounting happened twice, as demanded by both candidates, and the process was clean and recorded on CCTV," he added.

"If recounting was demanded, then it was done with due process," he said, adding that "Waikar hasn't done any fraud. No EVM operates through mobile phones. It's a fact. Hence, there is no question of OTP".

"This was a false narrative by the MVA and INDIA alliance against Sena candidate Waikar," the Shiv Sena leader asserted.

Polling agents are not allowed to use mobile phones inside counting centres.

According to police, Dinesh Gurav, a polling officer, had the phone that generates the OTP. Only the officer is allowed to use the device and not anyone else. Police also registered a case against the Election Commission employee for allegedly giving the mobile phone to Pandilkar.

The allegations stirred a massive row on Sunday with many opposition leaders, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, sharing the report of Waikar's relative using the mobile phone.

Gandhi wrote on X, "EVMs in India are a 'black box', and nobody is allowed to scrutinise them.  Serious concerns are being raised about transparency in our electoral process. Democracy ends up becoming a sham and prone to fraud when institutions lack accountability".

Senior Supreme Court advocate Prashat Bhushan, sharing the news, said "In this constituency the INDIA alliance candidate had won, but on recount at instance of NDA candidate, due to the counting of electronically collected postal ballots, the NDA candidate was declared winner!"