Caravan News
MUMBAI – While there were several incidents of EVMs malfunctioning across the state during the voting for the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections on Monday, in Satara, all votes went to the ruling BJP no matter which button the voter hit on the EVM, says a report carried by Maharashtra Times, and subsequently by Mumbai Mirror.
These serious allegations of malfunctions have been acknowledged by the Election Commission officials in Satara as well.
The said incident came to light around 11 am and by the time it was acknowledged, nearly 200 people from the area had already voted.
Some voters in Navlewadi village of Koregaon constituency in Satara district had cast their vote for another candidate, however, the VVPAT slip showed that their vote had been cast in favour of the BJP candidate.
Following this, the villagers brought it to the notice of the polling booth officers. Initially, the officers did not pay any heed to the claims being made, but later, the police had to intervene. The officers checked the machines and found their claim to be true. Soon, the faulty machine was replaced with a new machine.
Nobody in Maharashtra believes in #ExitPolls …
Infact people are so furious & angry … they feel there is serious possibility of EVM tampering.
Anger is so bad that it might create a Law & Order situation in state.
Election Commision should take care and watch this closely.— Satyajeet Tambe (@satyajeettambe) October 22, 2019
In Satara, voting was being held for the assembly as well as the Lok Sabha by-poll after Udayanraje Bhosale quit the NCP, resigned from his seat and joined the BJP.
In another incident related to the EVM in Chandrapur, two people were caught carrying voting machines in a private vehicle, as per media reports.
The incident took place in the Durgapur area in Ballarpur constituency from where Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar is contesting.
However, the District Collector said that the machines were not used during voting but were from the reserve stock.
