NEW DELHI: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti’s sweeping victory in the 2024 general assembly elections in Maharashtra, Karnataka home minister and senior Congress leader G Parameshwara said his party leaders were surprised over the information they got about Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being selectively “hacked.”
Parameshwara, who is also the All India Congress Committee observer of Maharashtra elections, said that party leaders including former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel discussed the EVM issues and are going to appeal to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“The information we got is surprising that EVMs are hacked, not in every constituency but selectively. I believe they have hacked the EVMs. That is what we discussed,” said Parameshwara.
“In some states, EVMs are not hacked because they want to show that people have to believe (in EVM). It seems we have lost Maharashtra due to the EVM hack. We have also failed in strategising. It seems that they will win as long as there are EVMs. we have been insisting that the ballot paper should come from the beginning, but the Election Commission denies it time and again,” he said.
While raising concerns about EVMs, Parameshwara also acknowledged shortcomings in the Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) campaign strategy. He pointed to a lack of coordination between Sharad Pawar’s group and Uddhav Thackeray’s group, late ticket announcements, and the BJP’s successful implementation of welfare schemes like the “Ladli Bahin Yojana” as contributing factors to their loss.
Parameshwara admitted that Sharad Pawar’s group and Uddhav Thackeray’s group failed to campaign as planned.
“Ladli Bahin Yojana is quite impactful for them. They gave it for the last 6 months, all this is in their hands. We finally in the end announced the ticket and there was confusion in the party. Sharad Pawar’s group and Uddhav Thackeray’s group were not well aligned, didn’t campaign as planned, and Vidarbha did not give us many seats. We expected at least 50+ seats in the Vidharbha region, as long as there are EVMs, it will be difficult for Congress to come,” he added.
Reacting to Congress winning all three assembly constituencies in Karnataka, Minister Parameshwara said that this win will give more strength to the state government and the chief minister.
“The (efforts of) administration, the guarantees, the party workers and the social engineering – all this put together has given wonderful results in all three constituencies and this gives more strength to the government and the Chief Minister to go aggressively in terms of implementing the programmes,” the minister said.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Congress candidate Pathan Yasir Ahmed Khan won the Shiggaon assembly constituency against BJP’s Bharath Bommai, son of former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. E Annapoorna of Congress won the by-election from the Sandur assembly constituency against Bangara Hanumantha of BJP. Meanwhile, Congress’ CP Yogeeshwara won from the Channapatna assembly constituency against Nikhil Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal (Secular).
In Maharashtra, Mahayuti won 231 of 288 seats in the general assembly elections. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has won 50 seats.