India

'Govt. overreacted'! Experts after Markadwadi forced to call off dummy polls

Markadwadi in Solapur had planned dummy polls over suspicion against EVM.

Credit : Indie Journal

 

After Markadwadi villagers were forced to cancel the dummy polls that they had organised in their village, following threats from the district administration that legal action would be taken even if one vote was polled, experts have called this an 'overreaction' on part of the government. As locals say they are determined to find the truth, experts say this fiasco could have been avoided by matching EVM votes with VVPATs.

After the Maharashtra assembly election results were announced, Markadwadi was surprised to see their village giving lead to BJP candidate Ram Satpute. They wondered if the villagers really voted for Satpute or if the EVM machines had been tampered with. So they decided to conduct a dummy election on ballot papers. But their plans were cut short as the district administration warned them against it.

Uttam Jankar of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) won the Malshiras assembly constituency for a third time. But during counting, it was revealed that BJP candidate Ram Satpute got more votes in this village. Out of 1,864 votes polled in this village, Satpute got 1,003, while Jankar received only 843 votes.

The villagers have claimed that the village is a stronghold of Jankar. Going as far back as 2009 assembly polls, results have shown a clear trend of Markadwadi villagers favouring Jankar. Even Jankar was also seen with villagers as they demanded dummy voting and negotiated with administration for it.

 

 

The dummy elections were not conducted as the District administration warned villagers against it and deployed police to make sure that no such thing happens. For the last three to four days, Markadwadi changed into a police camp with hundreds if not thousands of police deployed.

But Satpute called this demand of dummy election a well thought plan against EVMs and administration. "This was not an agitation of villagers, Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil orchestrated all this to peddle a false narrative against EVMs and Administration. They want to blame EVMs for their defeat," claims Satpute.

"For the last three days, workers and hooligans of Patil have been threatening villagers. Even Uttam Jankar is a mere pawn of Ranjitsinh Patil," said Satpute blaming Ranjitsinh Patil for masterminding this dummy election demand.

Ranjit Markad, son of Markadwadi's Sarpanch, while speaking with Indie Journal said that he or anyone from his village is not under pressure from Jankar or anyone. Villagers and Jankar are together in this.

"Our village has always been with Jankar. Although the government has stopped us from having elections, we will not stop until our village gets justice and we find whom we have voted for," said Markad.

This is not the first time Satpute blamed the former MP and his party colleague for something. Just after his defeat in assembly elections Satpute blamed Mohite patil for joining hands with Jankar to defeat him. Satpute had also demanded his expulsion from the party. In case of his increased vote share in Markadwadi, Satpute claims that many women voted for him because of schemes like Ladki Bahin.

 

 

But villagers said that they sense a conspiracy in the increased vote share. They think EVMs have been tempered with, otherwise what can explain sudden increase in BJP's vote share. In the recent Lok Sabha elections too, it was the NCPSP candidate who got most of the votes in this village.

Markad also rejected the possibility of women from the village voting for the BJP candidate because of Ladki Bahin Yojana. "I can't say if anywhere else this scheme helped Mahayuti in its victory, but in my village we were very clear about who we are voting for and everyone understood it very clearly." Block voting on the order of community leaders is a common practice in rural parts of Maharashtra.

Tushar Gaikwad, a political analyst based in Chiplun talks more about this practice, "Usually in villages people vote as decided by their village chiefs. Even if they don't like the candidate, they will vote as told to them. In return of this block voting, villagers negotiate with the candidate and get some work done. It could be for a new road, funds for a temple, or anything like this," Gaikwad said.

"They do know that some of the villagers might not vote as told. These villagers might have considered that some people would cross vote, but the results must have shown more deviation than villagers anticipated. That's why they are demanding this dummy election. As a democratic country we should have welcomed this move. They have followed all the necessary processes," Gaikwad said, further describing how Markadwadi villagers called a Gram Sabha and passed a resolution for re-election in the village as they were not satisfied with results.

Before considering conducting their own voting on ballot paper, Markadwadi villagers went to district administration and asked for re-election. The administration rejected their demands. According to Solapur's Chief Election Officer Vijaya Pangarkar, there were no discrepancies in the village's result and thus, it made no sense to conduct re-election.

"Even for Markadwadi, there were no errors found on the polling day or at the time of counting. They have not demanded any revote or made any complaint against the results. We have counted votes, declared the result and the whole election process is complete. Therefore any demand like this (dummy voting on ballot papers) does not fit in any frame of laws. Therefore there's no question of giving permission to a dummy election like this" she said.

 

 

Ever since the results of Maharashtra assembly elections have been declared, many analysts, political commentators and experts have wondered if EVMs have played any role in Mahayuti's landslide victory. EVMs have been receiving a lot of heat lately for the possibility of tampering.

Though a faster process in comparison to ballot papers, it has been pointed out that EVMs can be manipulated in many ways. It might not record the same vote as it was polled or there's no guarantee of all the polled vote being counted. Therefore, to make it more transparent, the Election commision of India connected Voter verified paper audit trail machine (VVPAT) to EVMs.

Everytime voter presses his vote on EVM, the VVPAT prints a slip of the symbol of the party for which the voter has voted. Therefore giving assurance to voters that their vote was casted correctly. At the time of counting one can match the slips in VVPAT machines with polled votes and verify the tally.

Markad however showed disbelief in the VVPAT system also. "What if they changed slips inside the machine to match vote count or what if the VVPAT unit shows us one slip, but sends a different input altogether to the Control unit?" he said when questioned about counting slips from VVPAT and matching them with election results.

Gaikwad also said that the administration blew this out of proportion. "They (administration) overreacted in a way. They could have let those villagers carry out elections. But they doubled down on them, they threatened villagers with police action, and they declared prohibition on gathering in the village. One such election can't challenge your legitimacy, but the way they conducted themselves raises many questions on the reliability of EVMs," he added.

The way the whole administration has reacted to Markadwadi residents' demands is only increasing people's suspicions. The administration or the government, after listening about villagers' decision to conduct dummy polls, came down upon them heavily. From deploying police in the village, declaring prohibition of movement, to threatening villagers with legal action, they did everything in their hands to stop this voting.

 

 

"We planned a whole vote, but the administration with the help of police stopped us from doing so. But are not going to back down so easily, we all villagers will have a discussion and we will decide what we can do next. We want justice for our village. We will take help from our MLA and MP to see what we can do," Markad says.

Gaikwad says that all fiasco could have been avoided if ECI had matched EVM votes with VVPAT. As per the law ECI must match 5 percent of total EVMs with VVPAT but they haven't done so citing time limitations.

"They (ECI) gave 10 extra unconstitutional days to Mahayuti to form a government, but they can't match EVM votes with VVPAT. We have seen EVMs having many problems but we still use them. At least we can match them with VVPATs and help increase trust in the system. Even in the case of Markadwadi they could have just matched VVPAT slips to EVM votes and cleared all doubts, but they haven't," Gaikwad said.

 

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