Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Results: Rahul Gandhi Raises EVM Concerns
The Lok Sabha elections 2024 results were declared, with BJP-led NDA securing 293 seats. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raises concerns about EVM transparency, echoing Elon Musk’s recent comments.
The results of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 were declared on June 4, with the BJP-led NDA securing 293 seats, while the All India Alliance captured 232. In the last few years, the issue of EVM hacking has surfaced after every election, but this time, no one raised the issue of EVMs after the election results were declared. However, this issue has once again come into the spotlight, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi terming EVMs as a black box. Rahul Gandhi's statement came after a post by Elon Musk, in which he advised against using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for the US presidential election due to hacking risks.
Serious Concerns About Transparency in Electoral Process: Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “EVM in India is a 'black box' and no one is allowed to examine it. Serious concerns are being raised about the transparency of our electoral process. When there is a lack of accountability in institutions, democracy becomes a sham and the possibility of fraud increases.”
Rahul Gandhi Mentions the Mumbai Incident in His Post
EVMs in India are a "black box," and nobody is allowed to scrutinize them.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 16, 2024
Serious concerns are being raised about transparency in our electoral process.
Democracy ends up becoming a sham and prone to fraud when institutions lack accountability. https://t.co/nysn5S8DCF pic.twitter.com/7sdTWJXOAb
While retweeting Elon Musk's post, Rahul Gandhi also shared a newspaper clipping mentioning an incident from Goregaon, Mumbai. In the EVM hack case, Mumbai Police registered a case against Mangesh Pandilkar, a relative of North-West Mumbai MP Ravindra Waikar. Mangesh Pandilkar is accused of using a mobile phone inside the Goregaon Election Center despite the ban. The police also registered a case against an Election Commission employee for providing the mobile phone to Mangesh.
Police investigation revealed that Mangesh Pandilkar used the phone connected to the EVM machine. It was found that the mobile phone was used to generate the OTP that unlocks the EVM machine. The police have sent the mobile phone to a forensic lab for data extraction.
Elon Musk Calls for a Ban on EVMs
Tesla, X, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has advised banning the use of EVMs in elections. Musk wrote on the social media platform X, “We should eliminate EVM machines. The risk of EVMs being hacked by humans or AI is low but still very high.”