‘Trust in EVMs’: 83% of people in Karnataka government survey say this; BJP mocks Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: A survey conducted by the Congress government in Karnataka regarding the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has revealed strong public trust in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). According to the survey, more than 83 percent of people said they consider EVMs reliable. Following the release of this report, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a sharp attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has long questioned the electoral process and the reliability of EVMs.

What the survey revealed
In the survey titled ‘Lok Sabha Election 2024 – Evaluation of Baseline Survey of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Citizens’, 83.61% of people considered EVMs reliable. 69.39% of people believed that EVMs give accurate results, while 14.22% fully agreed with this statement.

Feedback taken from 5,100 people
This survey was conducted in 102 assembly constituencies of Karnataka. It included 5,100 people from the Bengaluru, Belagavi, Kalaburagi, and Mysuru administrative divisions. The survey was conducted by the Karnataka government through Chief Electoral Officer V. Anbukumar.

Which region showed the most trust in EVMs?
Looking at the results by division, Kalaburagi showed the highest level of trust. Here, 83.24% of people considered EVMs reliable, with 11.24% fully agreeing. In Mysuru, 70.67% of people expressed their trust in EVMs, and 17.92% strongly affirmed their belief in EVMs. In Belagavi, 63.90% agreed and 21.43% fully agreed. In the Bengaluru division, these figures were 63.67% and 9.28% respectively.

BJP hits back: ‘Karnataka has revealed the truth’
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been continuously accusing the BJP and the Election Commission of alleged EVM tampering and ‘vote theft’ in the elections. Reacting to the survey, BJP leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, R. Ashok, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “For years, Rahul Gandhi has been saying across the country that India’s democracy is in danger and that EVMs are not reliable. But the people of Karnataka have told a completely different story today.”

The BJP said that this statewide survey makes it clear that people trust the elections, they trust the EVMs, and they trust India’s democratic process. The party called it a “slap in the face” for the Congress.

‘Questioning institutions when they lose, celebrating when they win’
The BJP accused the Congress of double standards, saying that “the Congress questions institutions when it loses and celebrates the same system when it wins. This is not politics of principles, but politics of convenience.”