'No discrepancies found even after checking 4.5 cr VVPAT slips: CEC'

[Sukla Sen]

<<"Let me tell the nation today. After the Supreme Court mandated in 2019 that five VVPATs must be counted from each assembly constituency, over 67,000 VVPATs have been checked. This translates to more than 4.5 crore (VVPAT) slips being verified. And let me assure you that not even a difference of one vote has been found with the new machines since 2019," the CEC [Rajiv Kumar] said.>>

Has anybody challenged it?

(Or is going to challenge?)

If not, then that speaks for itself.

If yes, then the details have to be looked up.

If not, then it'd suggest that even though there're certain soft spots in the EVM system, it's highly likely that it could not be hacked or manipulated by the regime as yet.

The outcome of the last parliamentary poll, in particular, also very much supports that proposition. Despite the shrill cry of "Abki Baar Char Sau Paar!", the BJP was pretty much reduced from 303 to 232 -- much below the bare majority mark of 272. Modi's victory margin was drastically slashed. The two major targets of the regime -- Rahul Gandhi and Mahua Moitra, who had been thrown out of the parliament for campaigning against Adani -- won with handsome margins. Smriti Irani lost! But, that's, admittedly, only supporting circumstantial evidence. As are the facts that even amidst the massacre in Maharashtra, Aditya Thackeray won. More significantly, Nana Patole won with a margin of 208 votes.

That no discrepancies have been found out between VVPAT slips and the poll results is far more significant.

That, however, doesn't negate the fact that the election as a whole was highly manipulated. The field was grossly tilted with very much asymmetric access to financial resources, utterly biased media coverage, free pass for hate speech, questionable voter registration and deletion etc. etc.

Hence the completely biased role of the ECI must be consistently and continually harped on and remedial measures be demanded in all possible ways.

The campaign for remedying the soft patches in the EVM system must go on. But, unsubstantiated fanciful claims are very much counterproductive in multiple ways.

<https://m.rediff.com/news/report/no-discrepancies-found-even-after-checking-45-cr-vvpat-slips-cec/20250107.htm>

Addendum: If any one EVM can be "hacked" or "manipulated", then any and every EVM can be so "hacked" or "manipulated" -- with, of course, commensurate scaling up of efforts.

Under such circumstances, the only logically consistent response from those (perceiving to be) getting the short end of the stick would be to most forcefully demand immediate scrapping of EVMs and boycott the polls till that demand is met. (Ref.: <https://m.rediff.com/news/commentary/2024/dec/10/ask-supriya-to-resign-if...-bjp-leader-to-pawar/4d13d906b153fa20108a54487ebe4943>.)