Election results: Victory of EVMs, says opposition; EC avoids wading into row | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The election process and EVMs were once again blamed by Congress and some individual politicians and candidates for the INDIA alliance’s rout in Maharashtra, notwithstanding the opposition grouping’s resounding victory in Jharkhand.
Briefing media as the assembly poll trends and results trickled in on Saturday, Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh alleged that the outcome in Maharashtra was “brought by disturbing the level playing field in a targeted way”. His party colleague Pawan Khera raised questions on EVMs yet again, saying that “in a country where exam papers are leaked, can we blindly trust the machines?”
“You cannot shut us up by showing results of Jharkhand. To date, apart from poetry, we have not received any concrete answer from Election Commission (on complaints regarding varying battery charge levels of EVMs & slow uploading of counting trends in Haryana) ..,” said Khera.
The election process and EVMs were also doubted by individual politicians and candidates of other political parties, even as the respective parties refrained from endorsing their grievances.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said, “It seems as if a tsunami has come, rather than a wave. The question is whether the general public agrees with it or not.” “This result is incomprehensible. We will have to find the reason behind it. Do not be disappointed. Do not be discouraged. This is the victory of EVM; it may be. If the people of Maharashtra do not accept the results, we will continue to fight with all our hearts. We promise the people of Maharashtra that we will continue to fight.”
Alleging that BJP aims to do away with the opposition, he said, “When you look at the total figures, the govt does not need to present things for approval in the (House) session either. It has decided that there should be no opposition party left. BJP president J P Nadda had said that only one party will remain. Accordingly, it seems that the country is moving in this direction of ‘one nation, one party’.”
Early in the day, UBT Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut was the first to allege ‘gadbad’ (something amiss) in the trends, claiming that some seats were “stolen” from MVA.
NCP (Sharad Pawar) nominee from Anushakti Nagar constituency Fahad Ahmad and his actress wife Swara Bhasker, following his loss after having led the initial rounds, echoed the “99% charge” conspiracy theory.
EC on its part avoided joining issue with the naysayers, signalling that the debate last sparked off by Congress’s allegations regarding EVM batteries and slow uploading of results in Haryana polls, had been settled with its exhaustive clarification dated Oct 29.
EC had, in its response earlier to Congress’s complaints on Haryana, ruled out any link between the extent of charge in an EVM battery and the results stored in it.
NCP(SP) MP Supriya Sule refused to be drawn into the EVM blame game for now, merely saying that one needs to be mindful of the results in Jharkhand (where INDIA alliance has won) before questioning the EVMs in Maharashtra.