Amid EVM-tampering claims, NCP(SP) leader reveals how he ensured win

With the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alleging large-scale tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) by the Mahayuti alliance, which won the Maharashtra Assembly elections with a big mandate, NCP(SP) leader Jitendra Awhad has listed the measures he apparently took to make sure no such interference could happen in the constituency he was contesting.

Awhad won the Mumbra-Kalwa Assembly seat by a massive margin of 96,228 votes over nearest candidate Najeeb Mulla of the NCP.

Starting early

He started the post with the headline: “How did I win this election with a huge margin?”

According to Awhad, his 27-member team got into action right after the Election Commission (EC) announced the First-Level Checking (FLC) process for the EVMs in Thane district. The other steps that follow are Randomization I, Randomization II, and Commissioning.

Awhad wrote that once they received the first notice from the EC that the FLC process would start on August 1 in Thane district, his team kept “a close eye on the entire process from day one”.

Also read: Claim of Congress candidate getting ‘zero votes’ in Maharashtra village false

Team followed EVM-carrying vehicles too

He added that the subsequent processes were also monitored by his team. If they spotted any laxity on part of the EC, they brought it to its notice. He helped them rectified any mistakes.

“On some occasions, the officials concerned argued with my team, but we politely managed to convince them,” he wrote, adding that there was a “strategy” behind this. The strategy was to let the people concerned know that someone was keeping an eye on every detail related to the EVMs.

Even the transportation of EVMs was watched by his hawk-eyed team. Every time the EVMs were moved from one place to another, his team followed all those vehicles in their cars. Any “problem” would be brought to his attention, Awhad wrote, citing an incident when one of the vehicles transported EVMs without police protection.

Also read: ‘53 votes, not 2’: BMC rubbishes MNS candidate’s claim of EVM deceit

“Kept an eye on every small detail”

“As we had gone through all the procedures of the EC, we had the details of which machine would go to which booth. We gave the details to our polling agent. As a result, no one would have dared to bring any other machines to our booth,” he narrated.

His counting agent, too, had all information when the EVMs went for counting. “He was trained for this,” Awhad wrote.

“In short, we kept an eye on every small detail regarding EVMs. As a result, no rigging could happen in my constituency. And I got elected from my constituency with a huge margin,” he concluded.