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

Comments

From algorithms to exploitation: New report exposes plight of India's gig workers

By Jag Jivan The recent report, "State of Finance in India Report 2024-25," released by a coalition including the Centre for Financial Accountability, Focus on the Global South, and other organizations, paints a stark picture of India's burgeoning digital economy, particularly highlighting the exploitation faced by gig workers on platform-based services.

Countrywide protest by gig workers puts spotlight on algorithmic exploitation

By A Representative A nationwide protest led largely by women gig and platform workers was held across several states on February 3, with the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU) claiming the mobilisation as a success and a strong assertion of workers’ rights against what it described as widespread exploitation by digital platform companies. Demonstrations took place in Delhi, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and other states, covering major cities including New Delhi, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Mumbai, along with multiple districts across the country.

Over 40% of gig workers earn below ₹15,000 a month: Economic Survey

By A Representative The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, while reviewing the Economic Survey in Parliament on Tuesday, highlighted the rapid growth of gig and platform workers in India. According to the Survey, the number of gig workers has increased from 7.7 million to around 12 million, marking a growth of about 55 percent. Their share in the overall workforce is projected to rise from 2 percent to 6.7 percent, with gig workers expected to contribute approximately ₹2.35 lakh crore to the GDP by 2030. The Survey also noted that over 40 percent of gig workers earn less than ₹15,000 per month.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Budget 2026 focuses on pharma and medical tourism, overlooks public health needs: JSAI

By A Representative Jan Swasthya Abhiyan India (JSAI) has criticised the Union Budget 2026, stating that it overlooks core public health needs while prioritising the pharmaceutical industry, private healthcare, medical tourism, public-private partnerships, and exports related to AYUSH systems. In a press note issued from New Delhi, the public health network said that primary healthcare services and public health infrastructure continue to remain underfunded despite repeated policy assurances.

When compassion turns lethal: Euthanasia and the fear of becoming a burden

By Deepika A 55-year-old acquaintance passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. Why so many people are dying relatively young is a question being raised in several forums, and that debate is best reserved for another day. This individual was kept on a ventilator for nearly five months, after which the doctors and the family finally decided to let go. The cost of keeping a person on life support for such extended periods is enormous. Yet families continue to spend vast sums even when the chances of survival are minimal. Life, we are told, is precious, and nature itself strives to protect and sustain it.

Death behind locked doors in East Kolkata: A fire that exposed systemic neglect

By Atanu Roy* It was Sunday at midnight. Around 30 migrant workers were in deep sleep after a hard day’s work. A devastating fire engulfed the godown where they were sleeping. There was no escape route for the workers, as the door was locked and no firefighting system was installed. Rules of the land were violated as usual. The fire continued for days, despite the sincere efforts of fire brigade personnel. The bodies were charred in the intense heat and were beyond identification, not fit for immediate forensic examination. As a result, nobody knows the exact death toll; estimates are hovering around 21 as of now.

When resistance became administrative: How I learned to stop romanticising the labour movement

By Rohit Chauhan* On my first day at a labour rights NGO, I was given a monthly sales target: sixty memberships. Not sixty workers to organise, not sixty conversations about exploitation, not sixty political discussions. Sixty conversions. I remember staring at the whiteboard, wondering whether I had mistakenly walked into a multi-level marketing office instead of a trade union. The language was corporate, the urgency managerial, and the tone unmistakably transactional. It was my formal introduction to a strange truth I would slowly learn: in contemporary India, even rebellion runs on performance metrics.

Report exposes human rights gaps in India's $36 billion garment export industry

By Jag Jivan A new report sheds light on the urgent human rights challenges within India’s vast textile and garment industry, as global regulations increasingly demand corporate accountability in supply chains. Titled “Beneath the Seams,” the study reveals that despite the sector employing over 45 million people, systemic issues of poverty wages, unfair purchasing practices, and the exclusion of workers from decision-making persist, leaving millions vulnerable.

Search This Blog