The counting of votes for 243 assembly constituencies in Bihar is underway. The Election Commission has in a presser, informed that there has been an absolutely glitch-free counting process so far. It confirmed that the EVMs are robust and safe, which means that there has been no malfunctioning or ‘tampering’ of EVMs- a conspiracy theory which the opposition starts spinning every time the results of any election are contrary to their desires.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1326074180220063744?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe closely fought elections saw incumbent Nitish Kumar, who is heading the JD(U)-BJP combine, take on the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan comprising RJD, Congress and Left Parties. As trends started to unfold and NDA was seen gaining a clear edge in the state and could be on course to retain power, ministers belonging to the rival side like-Congress leader Udit Raj went into conspiracy theory mode claiming that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were tampered to rig the results.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1326056767919251457?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThis is a tactic which opposition often adopts when they start losing the game. Amusingly, even while votes were still being counted, the Congress leader goes on to claim that EVMs have been tampered. It is notable here that Congress has, in the past tried to claim ‘EVM rigging’ multiple times, without a single shred of evidence. Even when the Election Commission of India had challenged all the political parties to come up and demonstrate how can EVMs be rigged, none of these parties had shown up.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1326077792409198594?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwMeanwhile, the Election commission has informed that ther was a 63% increase in polling booths in Bihar keeping the COVID-19 protcols in mind. It said that in view of the Covid-19 requirements, the commission decided to limit the number of electors in each booth to 1000-1500, that is why the number of booth went up from 65,000 to 1.06 lakhs this year. Which means that 1.06 lakh EMVs are to be counted. So it said that though slightly more than 1 crore votes have been counted in Bihar but there is significant ground to be covered yet.