EVM Politics in UP Assembly Elections

Once Again, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are under scrutiny. EVMs are being used, instead of paper ballot since few year in Assembly and General Elections. Ongoing debate is about the use of EVMs in Elections, whether they can be manipulated or not?

Before starting the discussion, I would answer the question. YES, EVMs are not God-like and they certainly are not 100% tamper-proof. But It, certainly, is much safer than paper ballots . Going back to the paper ballot is certainly not the solution, rather it will be like going backwards in Electoral Reforms. We have better technologies to assist EVMs and Election Commission of India is experimenting with a few. 

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) System is one such example. It is being used by the Election Commission of India alongwith EVMs in certain Constituent Assemblies to assist the voters. It helps the voters in verifying their vote. 

VVPAT with EVM  (Source)

VVPAT was used in 20 Assembly Seats in Uttar Pradesh General Elections for Legislative Constituencies in the 2017 Elections. VVPAT was also used in 2 Assembly Seats in Punjab, 4 assembly seats in Uttarakhand (BHEL Ranipur, Dharampur, Haldwani and Rudrapur), 6 Assembly constituencies of Manipur (Singjamei, Uripok, Yaiskul, Khurai, Nambol and Thoubal) and all the assembly seats in Goa Elections. 

Let us examine the truth. First of All, VVPAT was used in 20 Assembly seats in UP. VVPAT Machines were used  in three assembly constituencies in Lucknow (Lucknow West, Lucknow North and Lucknow East). In addition to Lucknow, VVPAT machines were used in Agra (Agra Cantonment and Agra South); Aligarh (Aligarh); Bareilly (Bareilly); Kanpur (Govind Nagar and Arya Nagar); Ghaziabad (Ghaziabad); Meerut (Meerut); Moradabad (Moradabad); Saharanpur (Saharanpur Nagar); Allahabad (Allahabad North and Allahabad South); Faizabad (Ayodhya); Gorakhpur (Gorakhpur Urban); Jhansi (Jhansi Nagar) and Varanasi (Varanasi North and Varanasi Cantonment). (Source)

Now let us examine Constituency-wise results for EVMs with VVPAT in UP Assembly Elections, 2017: (Source: Election Commission Website)

1.  LUCKNOW - Lucknow West (2012: SP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
SURESH KUMAR SHRIVASTAV	Bharatiya Janata Party	93022
MOD REHAN	Samajwadi Party	79950
ARMAAN KHAN	Bahujan Samaj Party	36247

2. LUCKNOW - Lucknow North (2012: SP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
DR.NEERAJ BORA	Bharatiya Janata Party	109315
ABHISHEK MISHR	Samajwadi Party	82039
AJAY KUMAR SRIVASTAVA	Bahujan Samaj Party	29955

3. LUCKNOW - Lucknow East (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
ASHUTOSH TANDAN "GOPAL JI"	Bharatiya Janata Party	135167
ANURAG SINGH	Indian National Congress	55937
SAROJ KUMAR SHUKLA	Bahujan Samaj Party	3139

4. AGRA - Agra Cantonment (2012: BSP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
DR. GIRRAJ SINGH DHARMESH	Bharatiya Janata Party	113178
GUTIYARI LAL DUWESH	Bahujan Samaj Party	66853
MAMTA KAUDAN	Samajwadi Party	64683

5. AGRA - Agra South (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
YOGENDRA UPADHYAYA	Bharatiya Janata Party	111882
ZULFIQAR AHMAD BHUTTO	Bahujan Samaj Party	57657
NAZIR AHMED	Indian National Congress	39434

6. ALIGARH- Aligarh (2012: SP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
SANJEEV RAJA	Bharatiya Janata Party	113752
ZAFAR ALAM	Samajwadi Party	98312
MOHD ARIF	Bahujan Samaj Party	25704

7. BAREILLY - Bareilly (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
DR. ARUN KUMAR	Bharatiya Janata Party	115010
PREM PRAKASH AGARWAL	Indian National Congress	86343
ER. ANEES AHAMAD KHAN	Bahujan Samaj Party	14588

8. KANPUR - Govind Nagar (2012: BJP)
(I belong from this Assembly Constituency and verified the VVPAT for my vote. )

Candidate	Party	Votes
SATYA DEV PACHAURI	Bharatiya Janata Party	112029
AMBUJ SHIKLA	Indian National Congress	40520
NIRMAL TIWARI	Bahujan Samaj Party	28795

9. KANPUR - Arya Nagar (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
AMITABH BAJPAI	Samajwadi Party	70993
SALIL VISHNOI	Bharatiya Janata Party	65270
A HASIV	Bahujan Samaj Party	6061

10. GHAZIABAD - Ghaziabad (2012: BSP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
ATUL GARG	Bharatiya Janata Party	124201
SURESH BANSAL	Bahujan Samaj Party	53696
K K SHARMA	Indian National Congress	39648

11. MEERUT - Meerut (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
RAFIQ ANSARI	Samajwadi Party	103217
DR. LAXMIKANT BAJPAI	Bharatiya Janata Party	74448
PANKAJ JAULI	Bahujan Samaj Party	12636

12. MORADABAD - Moradabad (2012: SP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
RITESH KUMAR GUPTA	Bharatiya Janata Party	123467
MOHAMMAD YUSUF ANSARI	Samajwadi Party	120274
ATEEQ AHMED SAIFI	Bahujan Samaj Party	24650

13. SAHARANPUR - Saharanpur Nagar (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
SANJAY GARG	Samajwadi Party	127210
RAJIV GUMBER	Bharatiya Janata Party	122574
MUKESH DIXIT	Bahujan Samaj Party	17350

14. ALLAHABAD - Allahabad North (2012: INC)

Candidate	Party	Votes
HARSHVARDHAN BAJPAI	Bharatiya Janata Party	89191
ANUGRAH NARAIN SINGH	Indian National Congress	54166
AMIT	Bahujan Samaj Party	23388

15. ALLAHABAD - Allahabad South (2012: SP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
NAND GOPAL GUPTA NANDI	Bharatiya Janata Party	93011
PARVEZ AHMAD	Samajwadi Party	64424
MASOOQ KHAN	Bahujan Samaj Party	12162

16. FAIZABAD - Ayodhya (2012: SP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
VED PRAKASH GUPTA	Bharatiya Janata Party	107014
TEJ NARAYAN PANDEY ALIAS PAWAN PANDEY	Samajwadi Party	56574
MO. BAZMI SIDDEKE	Bahujan Samaj Party	39554

17. GORAKHPUR - Gorakhpur Urban (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
DR. RADHA MOHAN DAS AGRAWAL	Bharatiya Janata Party	122221
RANA RAHUL SINGH	Indian National Congress	61491
JANARDAN CHOUDHARI	Bahujan Samaj Party	24297

18. JHANSI - Jhansi Nagar (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
RAVI SHARMA	Bharatiya Janata Party	117873
SITA RAM KUSHWAHA	Bahujan Samaj Party	62095
RAHUL RAI	Indian National Congress	51242

19. VARANASI - Varanasi North (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
RAVINDRA JAISWAL	Bharatiya Janata Party	116017
ABDUL SAMAD ANSARI	Indian National Congress	70515
SUJEET KUMAR MAURYA	Bahujan Samaj Party	32574

20. VARANASI - Varanasi Cantonment (2012: BJP)

Candidate	Party	Votes
SAURABH SRIVASTAVA	Bharatiya Janata Party	132609
ANIL SRIVASTAVA	Indian National Congress	71283
RIJWAN AHMAD	Bahujan Samaj Party	14118

As is evident, out of the 20 Assembly seats where VVPAT was used, 17 have gone to Bhartiya Janata Party and the 3 others have gone to Samajwadi Party which is very much consistent with overall Election Results. Surprisingly, These results are even consistent with 2012 Assembly Election Results. In all the 20 cases, the party that won in 2012 has either won in 2017 as well or has been runner-up without even a single exception. Similarly, Election Results for other states for the assembly constituencies with VVPAT can be verified and it will show no inconsistency to the overall election results of that particular state.

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) System is the solution to the vulnerability of Electronic Voting Machines and it can also assist in the situation when any recounting of the votes is needed. It does not deny the fact that EVMs can not malfunction at times, but when they do, it is known and they are immediately replaced. Malfunctioning will not result in vote going to some specific party but rather they will not work at all. Some such incidents happened during Punjab Assembly Elections and revoting also took places at some polling booths for the same reason. 

(Faulty Voting Machines cause delay at Polling Stations)

Political Parties BSP, SP and AAP are raising voices against the use of EVMs and their probable tampering but none has gone for an impartial approach towards tackling the issue. They have been selfish about the use of EVMs correponding to the results which makes me uneasy about their hidden motives behind questioning the usage of EVMs. 

VVPAT was used with the EVMs in all the assembly constituencies in Goa and results of AAP are self-evident. It is also worth mentioning here that before Goa Elections, Congress and NCP requested the Election Commission for parallel counting of votes on VVPAT and EVMs, but the resolution was not supported by AAP and BJP. (Source)

Thus, It is time for these political parties to rethink their political agenda and what really went wrong for them than just making a mountain out of a mole. EVMs with VVPAT is the way forward for the future elections to shut the voices rising against the use of EVMs. 

(My only intent behind this article was to factually examine the allegations raised and fact check is totally against some viral articles which mention that UP constituencies with use of VVPAT have not gone to BJP in most of the cases. This allegation turns out to be absolutely false in view of the facts which can be easily verified from Election Commission of India website. )