Vote Chori: Kharge Jr demands court-monitored hackathon of EVMs

Karnataka's rural development & IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge has written to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar repeating his earlier demand to conduct a court-monitored ethical hackathon and audit of electronic voting machines (EVMs).

The Congress minister's demand comes in the backdrop of AICC leader Rahul Gandhi's "votes theft" campaign against the ECI and for disclosure of poll-related data of the last year's Lok Sabha elections.

Karnataka, with strong technology and R&D systems, was well placed to carry out such a transparent exercise under judicial and industry oversight to rigorously test the EVM architecture and address public perception issues around electoral integrity, Kharge Jr said in his letter to CEC.

"At a time when serious questions are being raised about the independence of institutions and the integrity of our elections, it becomes even more urgent to adopt proposals that improve transparency. Ignoring them only deepens doubts..," he said in his letter, while urging the Election Commission of India (ECI) to act on his proposal at the earliest.

In a post on X, Kharge Jr said Karnataka was ready to host the exercise in partnership with judicial and industry oversight. "In the backdrop of the ongoing #VoteChori debate and the irregularities flagged in Mahadevapura (Bengaluru), the recounting of EVMs in Panipat (Haryana) and the voter deletion fraud in Aland (Kalaburagi), public concern has only deepened. It is now the Commission’s responsibility to address these doubts and safeguard the credibility of our democracy."

Karnataka is pressing for the use of ballot papers in place of EVMs in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and has recommended the same to the state election commission.