Mumbai: In Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat, the Shiv Sena wing under Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde won the recently concluded general elections with the thinnest margin – 48 votes.
It came after a neck-to-neck contest between the winning candidate Ravindra Waikar and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena candidate Amol Kirtikar. Now, controversy surrounds this result.
An ‘OTP’
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The Vanrai police station in Mumbai has registered an FIR in the case after Kirtikar and two independent candidates pointed to Waikar’s brother-in-law Mangesh Pandilkar’s presence inside the counting station. The story, first reported by Mid-Day, points to an unexplained One Time Password sent to Pandilkar’s mobile phone on June 4, the day of the counting.
Pandilkar is named as an accused in the case. The police, however, claim that the first information report is filed only under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code for ‘disobedience to an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant’ and has nothing to do with his meddling into the functionings of an EVM as the Mid-Day report suggests. The senior inspector at Vanrai police station, R. Rajbhar said that besides Pandilkar police have also booked polling staff Dinesh Gurav for allegedly allowing Pandilkar to take his mobile phone to the counting station at the NESCO grounds in Goregaon East.
Returning Officer’s presser
Following the news and the furore it caused on social media, Vandana Suryavanshi, the Returning Officer of the 27 Mumbai North West parliamentary constituency, denied the allegations made in the story. Suryavanshi claimed that the EVM machines do not need an OTP to be locked. In a press conference in Mumbai, Suryavanshi claimed: “There is no OTP on mobile for unlocking EVM as it is non-programmable and it has no wireless communication capabilities. It is a complete lie being spread by a newspaper, which is being used by some leaders to create false narrative.”
Suryavanshi further said: “The OTP generated was related to ENCORE, an online data compilation system and that was only restricted to updating the data on the Election Commission’s official website.” To input data on the system, a few persons at every polling station have access to this compilation system, Suryavanshi claimed. “It is unfortunate that the mobile used by one of our officers fell in unauthorised hands and we have already filed a police complaint,” she added.
Suryavanshi claimed that the incident at Mumbai North West constituency counting centre concerns the unauthorised use of a mobile phone held by an authorised person by a candidate’s aide.
It is important to note that before the Election Commission picked up the issue, two independent candidates had complained about Pandilkar’s presence in the counting centre. The police, however, did not make either of them a complainant. The FIR mentions the returning officer as a complainant.
Close battle and immediate allegations of malpractice
For the better part of the counting day, Waikar and Kirtikar had a close battle, with a margin of less than 100 votes. Around 5 pm, after EVM counting, Kirtikar was leading by just one vote. At 6.30 pm, Waikar demanded that the rejected ballot votes be recounted. The Returning Officer allowed it and soon after, Waikar was leading by 48 votes.
Both candidates then approached the Returning Officer to have the 111 invalid or rejected postal ballot votes reevaluated. The returning officer agreed to revaluation under camera scrutiny and following this exercise, Waikar was finally declared a winner.
Following the announcement of the results, Kirtikar had within minutes complained of malpractice and sought access to the CCTV footage, which was denied. Kirtikar claimed that Suryavanshi had earlier said that the footage would be eventually made available but it has not been so far. Suryavanshi, at the press conference on June 16 said that since elections are a statutory process, the CCTV footage would be made available only after an order from a competent court.
Also read: EVM Row: ‘Anything Can Be Hacked,’ Elon Musk Tells Former IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar
‘Counting was suddenly stopped’
Responding to the controversy that has erupted after the Mid-Day report, Priyanka Chaturvedi, a member of the Rajya Sabha from Thackeray’s Sena wing, said that there many questions that the Election Commission has to answer to.
She said, “Until the 19th round, Kirtikar was leading and suddenly counting was stopped. After that the data about who was leading was not shared. And suddenly Waikar was declared a winner. There are many questions that need answers. Most importantly, the Election Commission is refusing to offer any transparency right now. I am unable to understand why the election commission has to defend these allegations.”
‘They are hurt’
Waikar, responding to the allegations, said that the Thackeray faction is “not able to digest their defeat”.
“It has hurt them and that is why they are making the noise. I don’t give any attention to them,” he claimed.
Responding to allegations around the hacking of the EVM, Waikar said, “As far as hacking EVMs is concerned, there were so many people with mobile phones there. Under Section 188 (of the IPC), whatever the fine is, they can levy that. Can the EVM really be hacked like this? I don’t want to give any explanation to this baseless allegation.”
Cops deny reports claims
The Vanrai police also issued a press note denying the claims made in the Mid-Day story. Cops have said that the MidDay story’s claim, attributing a quote to an unnamed police official, that a mobile phone was used to generate the OTP that unlocked the EVM machine used inside the NESCO Centre on June 4 is baseless.
“No such information was ever shared by the Vanrai police station. The news report has made false claims and has led to a lot of unnecessary confusion. Necessary action will be taken against the media houses that have caused this confusion,” the press note read.
