Claiming over 4,000 EVMs malfunctioned on the day of polling in Andhra Pradesh, the ruling Telugu Desam Party is collecting copies of Form 17 (c) from polling booths across the state. Form 17(c) is used to account for the number of votes polled at a particular polling booth on the day of the election. The TDP’s aim is to tally the votes counted at polling booths with the votes counted by EVMs to ensure there is no mismatch in the number of votes counted.
On April 13, the party approached the Election Commission, raising questions on the EVMs used and slammed the state Election Commission for lapses on polling day. It has called for re-elections in 618 polling stations across the state in their letter to the poll panel.
The TDP, shortly after the elections, tasked all their polling station agents to collect copies of all Form 17(c) from all the booths in the state. Usually, a counting officer matches the count in the form with that from the EVM on the day of polls.
As of Sunday, the party has collected almost 90 per cent of copies of Form 17(c)s from across the state.
“We do not know what will happen in the days leading up to the counting,” said N Vijay Kumar, a former party spokesperson for the TDP. “Many of the EVMs that were used in the Andhra Prades polls were of 2007 make, they were old and the officials handling them were not given sufficient training," he added.
In his letter to the ECI, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had asked the ECI to suggest a mechanism if there is a discrepancy between the votes counted and the VVPAT (Voter-verifiable paper audit trail) slips. The ECI had suggested counting at least five VVPAT slips per constituency, but the mechanism to proceed if a discrepancy has been found was not suggested. The TDP had asked the ECI to issue orders to conduct counting of all the VVPAT slips at all the polling stations in the assembly segments, in the case that discrepancies arise on the day of counting.
The party had raised apprehensions that the EVMs used in the state polls were called in for maintenance in December 2018 by its maker BEL (Bharat Electronics Limited). The party says there is no knowledge of what was done to the EVMs as part of this maintenance exercise.
"As many EVMs malfunctioned on the day of polls, there is a possibility that some of these machines may not have recorded the votes," said Vijay. The party has claimed that at one point in the day from between morning 7 am to 11: 30 am, over 4,300 EVMs malfunctioned in Andhra Pradesh on April 11. The number being claimed by the party has not yet been corroborated by the state EC.
Vijay has blamed the state Election Commission for being grossly unprepared this election. Polling was underway in some booths beyond the stipulated poll closing time of 5 pm. The last poll in the state was recorded at 4:30 am on April 12.
"The polling booths, where voting went on till late night and into the next day, had over 2,000 to 2,500 voters assigned to them. The Andhra Pradesh government, before the polls, had sought an additional 860 polling booths to be set up but only 60 more were allocated," claimed Vijay.
"Generally, the number of voters per polling booth would be around between 800 to 1,200 but this time, it was way over that number at many places, especially where the voting was prolonged," he added.
The party has claimed that the Telangana Election Commission did not calculate properly while allocating voters per booths.
"There are two votes a voter has to cast, Assembly and Lok Sabha. It would easily have taken more than one minute to cast both votes and voting happens for a maximum of 10 hours. Even if 100 to 150 people cast their vote per polling booth per hour, only an approximate 1,000 to 1,500 people can vote in 10 hours. The Election Commission has not even done this basic math while fixing the number of polling booths," said Vijay.
The TDP has also claimed that several other discrepancies have not been taken into consideration. In Masula, under the Machilipatnam assembly segment, the polling staff reportedly deleted 125 votes from the EVMs after they failed to clear votes registered during mock polls. Only a few voters returned to the polling booth to recast their vote, reported The Hindu.