EVMs in MP Faulty Where Voters Favour Congress: Digvijay Singh

2 faulty EVMs in Ujjain, 11 VVPAT machines in Alirajpur and 5 VVPAT and 2 EVMs in Burhanpur were replaced.

As faulty EVMs were reported in some polling booths across Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, 28 November, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh trained guns at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging that the fault occurred in constituencies where voters favour the Congress.

Singh took to Twitter to say that the Congress polling agents need to be careful in such constituencies.

https://twitter.com/digvijaya_28/status/1067631310502486016

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

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

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, too, said that he had written to the Election Commission regarding the faulty EVMs.

“There have been many complaints of EVMs malfunctioning, have written to the Election Commission. I have requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay,” he said.

He also took to Twitter to appeal for non-partial voting.

पूरे प्रदेश से वोटिंग मशीनें खराब होने की ख़बरें आ रही है। हमारे लोकतंत्र में नागरिकों का मत ही उनकी आवाज़ है -इसको कुचलने की कोशिश अत्यंत चिंताजनक है। मैं चुनाव आयोग से निवेदन करता हूँ कि तत्काल संज्ञान लेकर सुनिश्चित करे कि बगैर रुकावट और गड़बड़ी के निष्पक्ष मतदान सम्पन्न हो।

— Jyotiraditya Scindia (@JM_Scindia) November 28, 2018

According to CNN-News18, Congress leader Kamal Nath wants re-polling to take place in some constituencies.

There Are Provisions in Place: OP Rawat

Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat, commenting on the faulty EVM issue, said that there are provisions in place for such matters which do not necessarily need the Commission’s intervention.

“There are provisions for the extension of time, the local officers can take the call as they see fit. The matter does not need to be handled by the commission,” he said.

“There were few complaints on malfunction of some EVMs & VVPAT machines, they’ve been replaced. If it’s observed that voters left due to malfunction, we can consider re-polling at that particular polling station,” said Rawat.

While two faulty EVMs in Ujjain were replaced, 11 VVPAT machines in Alirajpur, five VVPAT and two EVMs in Burhanpur were also replaced, according to ANI.

Voting took place across 230 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress is looking to topple the incumbent Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government.

As many as 1.80 lakh security personnel have been deployed to maintain peace and ensure free and fair voting during the polls.

About 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, have been deployed on poll duty at 65,367 booths set up across the state, which has a 230-member Assembly. 17,000 of these polling booths have been declared sensitive and additional vigil will be maintained on them.