ECI Says Maharashtra Poll EVMs Cross-Checked In Presence Of Losing Candidates; VVPAT Found...

The Election Commission of India on Thursday released its fact-finding report related to Maharashtra poll irregularities based on the complaints filed by 10 losing candidates. The Election Commission said that while eight candidates attended the vote verification, two candidates chose not to attend. The ECI said that the EVMs passed the diagnostic tests in all cases.

"Based on the applications received from 10 candidates, checking and verification of the EVMs - ballot units, control units and VVPATs - was carried out across 10 Assembly constituencies and in all cases, the machines passed the diagnostic tests and no mismatch was found in the count of VVPAT slips. This exercise proves, yet again, that the EVMs are tamper-proof," said the poll body, reaffirming that EVMs are tamper-proof.

The poll body said the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra completed the EVM Checking and Verification pertaining to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Elections 2024 as per instructions issued by the Commission on 17th June 2025.

"In the presence of 8 applicants who were losing candidates, who had applied for the C&V, other candidates who had contested or their representatives, C&V was successfully conducted on 48 Ballot Units, 31 Control Units and 31 VVPATs of 10 Assembly constituencies. Two applicant candidates did not choose to attend. 3 Diagnostic test for verifying burnt memory/microcontroller was conducted in 147-KopriPachpakhadi AC, 148-Thane AC, 211-Khadakwasala AC and 229-Majalgaon AC (in 3 sets of EVMs) as per request of the applicant candidates. After diagnostic test, the authorized engineers from the manufacturer (ECIL) certified that all machines passed the diagnostic tests," said the ECI.

The poll body said that the diagnostic test along with mock poll was conducted in 188-Panel AC, 192-Alibag AC, 80- Arni AC, 119-Yevla AC, 271-Chandgad AC, 276-Kolhapur North AC and remaining 3 sets of EVMs of 229-Majalgaon AC. "The results of the EVM (from Control Unit) were verified with the VVPAT slips count and no mismatch was found," said the ECI.

Notably, Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, have alleged malpractice in the Maharashtra assembly elections, accusing the ECI of being in cahoots with the BJP. The ECI has rejected the allegations as baseless time and again.