Amit Kumar, lucknow : The first time EVM was used in India was in 1981 in by-elections to North Paravur Assembly Constituency in Kerala after it was invented by MB Haneefa. The EVMs were commissioned in 1989 by Election Commission of India in collaboration with Bharat electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited. EVMs were used on an experimental basis for the first time in elections to 16 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi held in November, 1988. The 2004 Lok Sabha election was conducted entirely on EVMs.
After Supreme Court declared legal flaws in EVM it was corrected in The RPI Act, 1951 providing the legal framework for the use of EVMs. Electronic Voting Machines are used across the world and lacunas they had persistently been corrected so that overall benefit of EVM can be achieved. US also saw the first EVMs introduced in 1975.
New generation VVPAT
In India also lacunas in EVM was corrected to make it reliable and conduct free and fair elections. A new generation of EVMs was developed in 2011 with a paper audit trail feature known as Voter Verified Paper Audit trail (VVPAT). The voter can dispel his doubt easily because of this newly added vote verification feature. In 2019 elections , Election Commission has commissioned EVMs with VVPAT.
Blaming game continues
Since 1981 there are very few elections in India where EVM’s reliability is not questioned. It becomes easy after loosing to put question on EVM and election commission because voters’ choice cannot be doubted. When UPA formed the Government and the Opposition suggested to introduce VVPAT Conges did not pay any heed. Since now Congress has lost its credibility among voters due to its pure policies and poor governance it has along with other parties started to play the game of blaming on EVMs notwithstanding now VVPAT system is being used which is far more reliable and ensure free and impartial election. Similarly SP and BSP also challenged credibility of EVM for the obvious reason of being losing the voters’ confidence in them. Caste politics does not work for long; working for Nation is imperative in order to win the voters’ confidence and win thereby.
In 2019 Election the BJP under leadership of Modi raised the following issues-
- Security of India- anti-terrorism approach or countering terrorism
- Foreign Policy
- Development of Nation First
and all these definitely arouse the national sentiment. now BJP and its allies have got 350 while on the other side the opposition has raised only one issue i.e. ‘Modi harao’ aise nahi to waise.