EC must order an audit of VVPAT slips & EVMs

Now that the Congress has given BJP a scare in Gujarat, it is being presumed that doubts over the electoral process and functioning of the voting machines have been put to rest. Indeed, smart political commentators were quick to ridicule the doubts by suggesting that the doubting Thomases should tender an apology because the close, neck and neck fight in Gujarat signalled a triumph of democracy and certified that the EVMs worked flawlessly.

It is indeed possible that the EVMs functioned flawlessly. But we would never know unless the Election Commission (EC) allows an audit, in the presence of independent observers, of a large enough number of EVMs and VVPATs chosen at random from those used in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The EC can take its time but such an audit would restore the faith of millions in the machines before the next general election.

BJP’s clean sweep of seats in Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara, for example, would have raised eyebrows. And so would a few other indicators from the battleground of Gujarat.

The Election Commission of India’s website, for example, updated at 1.17 pm on Monday showed BJP’s vote share at over 49 per cent and the Congress vote share at 41.5 per cent. Even two hours later, the vote shares by and large remained the same.

But when it came to seats won, the website displayed 9 seats for the BJP and 6 seats for the INC. At this point the BJP was leading in 93 additional seats and Congress in 68 seats. By 3.17 pm, the EC showed BJP having won 39 seats and Congress 32. All other channels had of course called the total result by then and declared BJP to have bagged 110 seats and Congress around 70.

While more details are awaited for a fuller analysis of the vote shares and seats won, on the face of it the wide gap in vote shares and a relatively shorter gap in seats provides plenty of food for thought.

BJP indeed had all along claimed that it would win a decisive majority in Gujarat. In fact, BJP Member of Parliament Swapan Dasgupta had tweeted on December 14 that the state unit of the BJP was confident of winning all the 12 seats in Surat. Indeed, BJP went on to win all the 12 seats in Surat, which had witnessed tumultuous protests against GST and where the textile industry had been hit hard.

A day after Dasgupta’s tweet, another BJP Member of Parliament Sanjay Kakade from Pune told Pune Mirror that he had sent his own team of surveyors to Gujarat and that the party was staring at defeat in the elections. He blamed the negative campaigning resorted to by the party for the impending debacle.

All through the campaign, reports had come in from Gujarat, particularly from Surat, that BJP leaders and workers were finding it difficult to campaign. Videos appeared and were circulated which showed traders attacking BJP workers, in some they were shown grabbing at the workers’ caps, scarves and flags and flinging them away. Even BJP national president Amit Shah was reported to have cancelled several meetings in Surat.

How could BJP sweep Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara even while it was losing ground elsewhere in the state, Ahmedabad included? Eight of its cabinet ministers had lost when this article was being written. Its vote share from 2014 has come down by 11%. All the Congress MLAs, who had defected during the Rajya Sabha poll and were fielded, appeared to be losing. And yet, BJP swept Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara.

It is of course entirely possible that the traders in Surat eventually decided to vote for the BJP. It is also possible that all the anger that was on display (not on TV channel though) dissipated on the polling day and BJP managed to convince them that they were safer and better off with the party in power at the Centre. After all, it was the Prime Minister who had publicly threatened that his government would not disburse a paisa to a state government that ‘opposed’ development!

So, as Smriti Irani put it, jo jeeta wahi sikandar! It could be, as she says, the victory of the party’s booth-level workers and dedicated election machinery that delivered the state for an eye-popping sixth time.

But now that the election has been won by the BJP, the Election Commission should have no reason to object to an audit of the VVPAT slips in 25 per cent of the booths. The purpose of the VVPAT machine is to ensure that EVMs record the right number of votes polled by the right candidates. But without any such audit, one would never know.

The audit is necessary not just because of the possibility of manipulation but also to ensure that the machines did not malfunction or people handling the machines did so correctly.

The Election Commission’s decision to conduct the audit in just 182 booths out of 50,264, is not statistically significant. It is for experts to decide what the number should be, but a post-poll audit would set doubts at rest and restore the integrity and credibility of the election.