Subramanian Swamy did not raise doubts about EVMs after BJP's Gujarat win
A video is being shared with the claim that BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has himself exposed the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) fraud and election rigging in the Gujarat election.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 13 Dec 2022 10:15 AM GMT
Hyderabad: After the Bhartiya Janta Party's (BJP) landslide victory in the Gujarat Assembly elections, a video is being shared with the claim that BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has himself exposed the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) fraud and election rigging in the Gujarat election.
A Facebook user shared the video and wrote, "BJP people have themselves exposed vote rigging in Gujarat, and Modi badly got caught in the EVM fraud." (Translated)
Fact Check
NewsMeter ran a keyword search and found that Subramanian Swamy was against the use of EVMs in elections in the past. According to a 2012 article in The Economic Times, Mr. Swamy had said that there is a lot of scope for manipulating EVMs in elections. It also quoted him as saying, "The micro-controllers used in the EVMs are imported from Japan. Despite this, EVMs are not used there and ballot papers are used in elections."
Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search on YouTube and found a video published on 19 April 2012 titled "Dr Subramanian Swamy exposes fault in Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)."
In this video, the viral clip of Mr. Swamy appears at around the 0.33-minute mark. He can be heard saying micro-controllers in EVMs are manufactured by Japan but the country itself conducts elections using ballot paper. He also speaks about his suggestion to the High Court that voters be provided printed receipts confirming that their vote has been cast for the right candidate.
On 13 November 2022, Mr. Swamy, in a tweet, questioned the changes made by the Election Commission on the use of VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) in EVMs for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He also said that he may file a fresh writ petition for the scrutiny of the changes. However, we did not find any reports about Mr. Swamy exposing EVM fraud in the Gujarat Assembly elections 2022.
The viral clip of Mr. Swamy questioning the credibility of EVMs is 10 years old and is not related to the recently held Gujarat Assembly elections. Hence, we conclude that the claim that Mr. Swamy has exposed BJP's EVM fraud in Gujarat is misleading.
