Chief Electoral Officer VL Kantha Rao took to twitter to dispel doubts over EVM snags and alleged videos about suspicious activities around strong rooms. The rwitter handle of CEO Madhya Pradesh @CEOMPElections was trolled following reports of largescale EVM glitches across the state.
Twitterati was not satisfied by CEO’s stereotyped answers. Ultimately the CEO had to come up with clarifications related to complaints and videos circulating on social media platforms including WhatsApp. In one instance, in a bid to convince a complainant, the CEO even posted original inquiry report of Collector Sagar on twitter. Almost all senior leaders of Congress, including state president Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijaya Singh, Arun Yadav and Suresh Pachauri had lodged formal complaints with the election commission.
The CEO was flooded with complaints from across the state immediately after the start of polling process. One of the twitter users even taunted the CEO and tweeted, “Can EC give full satisfaction to MP people because losts of media showing clip of different region plz clarify because our vote was important for our future.”
The CEO replied, “Yes. With 100% guarantee every EVM used for polling is safe, secure, intact, sealed and locked in strong room and continuously monitored by political parties also.” Following stereotype reply of CEO to other complaints, Tehseen Poonawalla started trolling Rao. Viral videos were posted on CEO’s timeline and answers sought.
When a twitter user asked about EVMs reaching strong room after 48 hours in Sagar, the CEO was forced to post original inquiry report of collector on Twitter. Even after that a twitter user kept poking the CEO about the bus used to carry the men and boxes. The bus was without a registration number. Another video that went viral on WhatsApp was from Satna where two people could be seen carrying boxes inside a room similar to strong room.
After being trolled for long, the CEO came up with a reply along with report by collector Satna that said, “it is clarified that this is not the strong room gate. EVM strong room is being guarded by 3-tier security as per ECI directions. The viral video showing two persons with boxes are RO Maiher authorised employees going to RO store room.” The timeline concludes with a message, ‘Chief Electoral Office has tried to clarify genuine concerns related to EVMs on this platform. This office assures voters of Madhya Pradesh that all EVM’s are safe, secure and sealed. We may not be able to give individual reply but we will try to keep the trust of people’.
