Skip to main content

EVM-bluetooth mystery: What happened in Porbandar? How did BJP get 210 votes each in Memanwada's 3 polling booths?

By Amaresh Misra*
What happened in Porbandar?
On 9th December 2017, during the first phase of polling in Gujarat, there was a prominent, EVM-Bluetooth scare.
Arjun Modhwadia, the Congress candidate from Porbandar Vidhan Sabha in Saurashtra, told the media that, "we detected...EVMs at three polling booths at Memanwada, a Muslim-dominated area... connected to external devices through Bluetooth...when the Bluetooth of a mobile phone is turned on...a device named 'ECO 105' is shown as available..."
Modhwadia added: "The chips fitted in the EVMs appear to be programmable using Bluetooth, and this raises the possibility of tampering...the voting system should be immune to such connectivity to external devices..."
BB Swain, the Chief Electoral Officer (CFO), Gujarat, sent engineers of BEL, the company that manufactures EVMs.
According to an Indian Express report, denying tampering, the CFO explained that "Election Commission ordered an inquiry... BEL engineers concluded that the signal was emanating from blue-tooth device of mobile phone of one Manoj Singrakhiya and not from the EVM. Singarakhiya was a polling agent and his mobile handset of Intexcompany was emanating the signal with device name ECO 105..."
The media did no follow up story on the identity of Manoj Singrakhiya.
Manoj was a BJP Manoj was a BJP polling agent. His name can be seen in the poll register of the three booths of Memwada.
Also, no one tried to tie the dots...the EC confirmed that Manoj, a BJP polling agent, was carrying a mobile device inside a polling booth, which is illegal, that too with a Bluetooth, which is doubly illegal!
Secondly, as per EC, Manoj's device did show 'ECO 105' -- now, which device was this? Why was Manoj's phone showing only ECO 105?
Let's turn to the question whether EVMs can be hacked via bluetooth. The EC denies such a possibility. But experts think otherwise.
To demonstrate whether wireless equipments could hack an EVM, a team of University of Michigan set up 'dishonest display boards', or EVM prototypes.
Then, "to demonstrate the potential for wireless signals", they "implemented a signaling mechanism based on the Bluetooth protocol...wireless signaling could be performed at any time before votes are publicly counted..."
Michigan team further added that, "dishonest display can then store the chosen candidate in the PIC’s non-volatile Flash memory until counting is performed..."
Michigan guys, tested two methods for Bluetooth-based signaling, both of which "can betriggered using ordinary mobile phones...though the use of mobile phones is technically prohibited within 100 meters of polling stations [22, Section XVII.10], this rule is infrequently enforced, and a concealed phone could be discreetly operated inside the polling booth..."
In the first method, "the dishonest display performs a Bluetooth inquiry scan shortly after power on and looks for a device with a name of the form MAGICxx, where MAGIC is some secret word and xx is a pair of digits that are taken to be the number of the favored candidate...the process is extremely simple to implement...however, it carries the risk that a third party might perform his own Bluetooth inquiry scan and detect the...signaling..."
Michigan guys also "developed a more robust signaling method based on the Bluetooth RFCOMM protocol, which provides a reliable stream of communication similar to TCP...."
Their "prototype implementation consists of an application running on an Android phone...it sends a short message to the dishonest display via RFCOMM indicating the favored candidate and the proportion of votes to grant that candidate...the application verifies success by waiting for an acknowledgment from the dishonest display..."
The "application does not use any special Android features, so it could be ported to any smartphone platform that supports RFCOMM, such as the iPhone or Windows Mobile..."
The screenshot below exhibits results of Porbandar seat. Babulal Bokhiriya of BJP polled 72,430 votes. Arjun Modhwadia got 70, 575 votes. BJP won by a slender margin of 1,855 votes.
In the 2012 elections, in the three booths of Memanwada, BJP got 112, 93 an 134 votes.
In the 2017 elections, in the three booths of Memanwada, BJP got exactly 210, 210, 210 votes...
210 is divisible by 105. The figure showing in Manoj's mobile was "ECO 105'.
I rest my case. Please do not ask me what Congress is doing... If you must, then send a petition directly to 24, Akbar Road, Delhi or to Shri Ashok Gehlot.
This concerns us... we are being made a fool of; we will fight among ourselves. But we will not question to BringBackTheBallot...
# BoycottEVMs
# BringBackTheBallot
---
Source: Amaresh Misra's Facebook timeline
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

132 Gujarat citizens, including IIM-A faculty, others declare solidarity with Kashmiris

Counterview Desk
A week after it was floated, 132 activists, academics, students, artists and other concerned citizens of Gujarat, backed by 118 living in different parts of India and the world, have signed a "solidarity letter" supporting the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), who, it claims, have been silenced and held captive in their own land. The signatories include faculty members and scholars of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
Post a Comment
more»

Bharat Ratna nominee ‘joined hands’ with British masters to 'crush' Quit India

By Shamsul Islam*
The Quit India Movement (QIM), also known as ‘August Kranti' (August Revolution), was a nation-wide Civil Disobedience Movement for which a call was given on August 7, 1942 by the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee. It was to begin on August 9 as per Gandhi's call to 'Do or Die' in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan on August 8. Since then August 9 is celebrated as August Kranti Divas.
Post a Comment
more»

Gujarat's incomplete canals: Narmada dam filled up, yet benefits 'won't reach' farmers

By Our Representative
Even as the Gujarat government is making all out efforts to fill up the Sardar Sarovar dam on Narmada river up to the full reservoir level (FRL), a senior farmer rights leader has said the huge reservoir, as of today, remains a “mirage for the farmers of Gujarat”.
In a statement, Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Ekta Manch (KEM), has said that though the dam’s reservoir is being filled up, the canal network remains complete. Quoting latest government figures, he says, meanwhile, the command area of the dam has been reduced from 18,45,000 hectares (ha) to 17,92,000 ha.
“According to the website of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd, which was last updated on Friday, while the main canal, of 458 km long, has been completed, 144 km of ranch canals out of the proposed length of 2731 km remain incomplete.
Then, as against the targeted 4,569 km distributaries, 4,347 km have been constructed, suggesting work for 222 km is still pending. And of the 15,670 km of minor canal…
Post a Comment
more»

Ceramic worker dies: 20,000 workers in Thangadh, Gujarat, 'risk' deadly silicosis

By Our Representative
Even as the country was busy preparing for the Janmashtami festival on Saturday, Hareshbhai, a 46-year-old ceramic worker from suffering from the fatal lung disease silicosis, passed away. He worked in a ceramic unit in Thangadh in Surendranagar district of Gujarat from 2000 to 2016.
Hareshbhai was diagnosed with the disease by the GCS Medical College, Naroda Road, Ahmedabad in 2014. He was found to be suffering from progressive massive fibrosis. He is left behind by his wife Rekha sister and two sons Deepak (18) and Umesh (12),
The death of Hareshbhai, says Jagdish Patel of the health rights group Peoples Training and Research Centre (PTRC), suggests that silicosis, an occupational disease, can be prevented but not cured, and the Factory Act has sufficient provisions to prevent this.
According to Patel, the pottery industry in the industrial town of Thangadh has evolved for a long time and locals as well as migrant workers are employed here. There are abou…
Post a Comment
more»

Cess for Gujarat construction workers: Spending less than 10%; no 'direct help' to beneficiaries

By Our Representative
While the Gujarat government’s Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, set up in 2004, as of March 31, 2019, has collected a total cess of Rs 2,097.62 crore from the the builders, it has spent less than 10% -- Rs 197.17 crore. And, as on May 31, 2019, the total cess collection has reached Rs 2,583.16 crore, said a statement issued by Bandhkam Majur Sagathan general secretary Vipul Pandya.
Pointing out that just about 6.5 lakh out of 20 lakh workers have been registered under the board, Pandya said, vis-à-vis other states, Gujarat ranks No 13th in the amount spent on the welfare of the construction workers, while 11th in the amount collected.
And while the builders are obliged to pay just about 1% of the total cost of their project, the calculation of the cess is flawed: It is Rs 3,000 per square yard; accordingly, Rs 30 per square yard is collected. “Had the cess been collected on the real construction cost, it would have been at least Rs 7,000 cr…
Post a Comment
more»