The headline story from India’s recent provincial elections was the staggering victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state of Uttar Pradesh. But a range of politicians and observers, however, have claimed it wasn’t Modi’s charisma that won it for the BJP, but rigged voting machines. Normally, such claims – currently unproven – would be laughed off as nothing but sour grapes. But in this case, the conspiracy theory appears to have taken root. And that it has done so illuminates some deeper concerns with the state of Indian democracy. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP annihilated all political opposition including the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), led by the Dalit icon Mayawati. Another surprise came in the state of Punjab, with a surprisingly poor performance by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by the current chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal. It was widely expected to do better, having dramatically halted Modi’s momentum in the Delhi elections of February 2015.
Both Mayawati and Kejriwal, supported by various other voices, have since been arguing that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) now used in all Indian elections were tampered with. Each candidate cites different “evidence” for their claims. Mayawati explained that the large crowds at her election rallies surely must have translated into more votes than she officially received; Kejriwal, meanwhile, claims that in one particular area, five of his party volunteers swear they voted for his AAP, but the registered votes show that just one did.
Both candidates are adamant that votes given to them were transferred to the BJP via voting machines, with Kejriwal claiming that as many as 20-25% of his party’s votes were stolen.
Full Article: What a ballot-rigging conspiracy theory says about India’s toxic political climate.