Kerala EC official responds to Opposition’s ‘extra BJP votes’ claim during mock poll

Kerala’s chief electoral officer (CEO) has reacted to the opposition’s charges of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) getting extra votes during mock polls in Kasaragod. Sanjay Kaul, the Kerala CEO, has called it a ‘procedural mistake’.

“EVM is a tested machine. There have been numerous petitions to the Supreme Court questioning the credibility of EVM. There has been an elaborate judgement as far as the security, safety of the EVM Machine is concerned. It is a standalone machine; it is not connected to anywhere else. What happened in Kasaragod is basically a procedural mistake I would say,” Kaul was quoted by ANI as saying.

Kaul added that when the EVMs are readied for the election, there is something called commissioning of machines where the candidates’ names are put and a mock poll is conducted.

“What happened in Kasargod, the commission is being done by the Bharat Electronics limited, whose machines these are. They wanted to complete this process very fast. When they test the print test button, first candidates name came, they stop machine, thinking that it’s all fine,” the Kerala CEO explained.

“The naming of the candidate on to voting machine is as per alphabetical. There was one particular political party, which is lotus symbol, that was the first candidate. When they connect it to the other table, what was there from the backlog, the previous table, that got printed first,” he added.

Mock poll is conducted by the Election Commission and takes place in front of the candidates or the agents assigned by them.

“The news was spread that you have press something, something else come out. Everyone has to be sure, voting machine are secure. Nothing is going to happen. Whichever button you will press, that is only going to be registered in the machines,” Kaul pointed out.

On Thursday, advocate Prashant Bhushan, while appearing for Association for Democratic Reforms, had cited a news report before the Supreme Court regarding complaints received during mock poll.

After the top court bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta asked the EC to look into it, senior deputy election commissioner Nitesh Kumar Vyas said,”These news reports are false. We have verified the allegation from the district collector and it appears that they are false. We will submit a detailed report to the court.”