Lok Sabha Elections 2024 - World's largest elections - Desh Ka Garv [World's envy]

[Arima]

apart from winning in TN, what matters more for BJP is vote share difference between ADMk and BJP. if this is in single digit then its game on Lotus CM for 2026.

[chetak]

My thoughts on TN. Putting my neck out here for posterity.

What is going on in TN is not a wave. It is several tides, crosscutting tides that is going to throw surprising results. For the jingoes here, it will be surprising on the positive side. And remember, lot of true nationalists are called "chaddis", "chaddiwallahs" on X-Twitter. So do hold on to your "chaddis" since it is going to be blown away.

As I am typing this, I am watching Thiru Annamalai's road show in Coimbatore. And as I see it, it is disorganized, chaotic since it is full of people. And very festive. It is like 800 ppl are invited, you expect 1600 and 8000 show up. Whoever is contesting against Annamalai is definitely not seen. Neither are they getting the space. What to do only?Wait, there seems to be something going on in Sivaganga as well!

Anyway I digressed. All the poll pundits will analyze and say this much polling percentage and that much poll and this much vote etc. All the data and quantitative analysis is valid, but for now put them aside. Maybe they are right. But maybe, just maybe they are being too polite. Or maybe I am off my rockers.

What is going on in TN is unprecedented. It is difficult to describe, but I will not call it a wave. I will call it a riptide. Yes a Riptide.

1. There is a substantial pro-Modi wave going on. In TN, under PM Awas Yojna is called "Modi Home". Several people remember it by that name. And they know that since 10 years, Modi has been fighting for them.

2. Pro-Annamalai wave. Yes, Annamalai has emerged as the leader in TN where all non=core DMK and AIDMK can coalesce.

3. Youth wave. Young TN voters, particularly the first timers are not too enamored by the DMK/ADMK parties. The aspirational youth have moved beyond the Dravida reach.

4. Anti-incumbency wave. MKS has one leg in the grave. Maybe both. The junior stalin has proven to be a pappu of TN. Like giving the LKFC award to goobear! I would hasten that the DMK vote share has already collapsed. Same for AIDMK.

5. Anti-corruption, pro-aspiration wave. Not many is enthused by dole. What they want is control and success.

And to top it, ECI has already caught >4k crores of "voter incentives" that has put a dent on the hoochers enthusiasm.

TN is ready for a change. And it will change. If not in 2024, then in 2026. DMK is on its way out. AIDMK is going to fade away.

And I think BJP may, and just maybe cross 20 seats.

Let's see. In the worst case, it will get Coimbatore and Sivaganga.

disha ji,



This was the time before the BJP's entry into TN but also not so long ago ...


The dmk was obsessed with wresting a seat away from another dravidiya party in coimbatore, a seat that the dmk had earlier held but lost to the other party


They spent nearly 18K per voter to get that particular seat back


that is the level of cash that these jokers are willing to spend and in Annamalai's case, it could be even double or three times that amount, just to spite and to stop him getting elected from wherever he files his nomination for the election.


Just saying onlee.

these dravidiyas cannot be underestimated in such matters, especially when 2024 results will have huge repercussions for the TN assembly elections fetching up down the road

[Prem Kumar]

In one particular TN Assembly seat, post Jaya's death, the going rate was 20K per person. A person known to me collected 80K for his family

[chetak]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHxSz4SyFPs


Ayodhya Ram Mandir I Ram Lalla I "Surya Tilak" Ayodhya Ram Mandir |Mangal Aarti





At noon on Ram Navami on Wednesday, the Sun’s rays fell on the forehead of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya, a 'Surya tilak' of the deity made possible by an elaborate mechanism involving mirrors and lenses.

[chetak]

Prashant Bhushan in Supreme Court : "Most European countries that had opted for voting through EVMs have now returned to the paper ballots"

JUSTICE KHANNA : "We are in our 60s. We all know what happened when there were ballot papers, we have not forgotten, you might have forgotten

https://www.newsbharati.com/Encyc/2024/ ... tions.html

[rajkumar]

In one particular TN Assembly seat, post Jaya's death, the going rate was 20K per person. A person known to me collected 80K for his family

How do the parties correlate that people who have taken the money actually vote for them? Apart from on trust.

[rajkumar]

In one particular TN Assembly seat, post Jaya's death, the going rate was 20K per person. A person known to me collected 80K for his family

How do the parties correlate that people who have taken the money actually vote for them? Apart from on trust.

[drnayar]

disha ji,

This was the time before the BJP's entry into TN but also not so long ago ...
The dmk was obsessed with wresting a seat away from another dravidiya party in coimbatore, a seat that the dmk had earlier held but lost to the other party
They spent nearly 18K per voter to get that particular seat back
that is the level of cash that these jokers are willing to spend and in Annamalai's case, it could be even double or three times that amount, just to spite and to stop him getting elected from wherever he files his nomination for the election.

these dravidiyas cannot be underestimated in such matters, especially when 2024 results will have huge repercussions for the TN assembly elections fetching up down the road

What prevents the people from collecting the money And voting for the BJP ?!!

[Cyrano]

My faith in the people of TN was restored when I saw the thousands of people of all ages and classes line up along rural and small town roads to pay respects to the vehicles carrying the remains of CDS Gen Rawat. The heart of Tamil people was and is in the right place. BJP has begun to tap into it with local leaders like Annamalai ji.

[disha]

The dmk was obsessed with wresting a seat away from another dravidiya party in coimbatore, a seat that the dmk had earlier held but lost to the other party


They spent nearly 18K per voter to get that particular seat back

...

these dravidiyas cannot be underestimated in such matters, especially when 2024 results will have huge repercussions for the TN assembly elections fetching up down the road

Chetak'Saar, please tell me something new

The national narrative is decidedly against the DMK party and they can try to buy influence in their small corner. It is upto TN voters to be deluded by one-time cash and use it for drugs and hooch or join the national narrative. The choice is firmly in the court of TN voters and from my reading, they are going to vote definitely and definitely with their feet (that is kicking the dravida parties around).

2024 may be a start. Or a spark (I still think it will be a riptide/firestorm), but 2026 is gone case for the dravida parties, particularly the corrupt dravida limpets hanging around in a small but significant part of the country.

And let them spend. Make it costly for them to win elections by giving cash for votes. All of the drug money will come and bite their back. How long can they sustain? Will TN voters let an entire generation go waste? I do not think so.

[disha]

In one particular TN Assembly seat, post Jaya's death, the going rate was 20K per person. A person known to me collected 80K for his family

Drug money. And I believe in Karma. If the above person after knowing that the 20k per person now is all coming from drugs, takes the money and still votes to the DMK party, then they will be partaking into a horrible karma.

And the local "goondas" of DMK/ADMK keep tab on the voting percentage and votes by block level. Since the drug (or hooch) money is given to a particular block, they expect some votes from that block. If the votes fall below their tally, that block pays a price. Generally they will not get access to services like water, electricity or ability to put their kids in the schools or anganwadi. Or farm loans or fertilizer or the labour when it comes to harvesting the crop. Or when it comes to papers (like passport or birth or death certificates)

There are wheels within wheels and all the feudalistic/dynastic parties have to do is block one of the wheel and make life hell for that person or his family.

And that is where Modi's DBT is a game changer. The JAM + DBT cut the middleman out. Plus the awaas yojna, water yojna and now free electricity through solar cuts out all middleman. This is work in progress, but if one wonders why Modi is popular, it boils down to just two things. No corruption and getting most of the benefits without the middleman (some benefits are as simple as uniforms for school going kids, shoes, mid-day meals, toilets etc).

[chetak]

What prevents the people from collecting the money And voting for the BJP ?!!

drnayar ji,

the murderous gangs that will hunt them down post the election loss ....

[chetak]

The dmk was obsessed with wresting a seat away from another dravidiya party in coimbatore, a seat that the dmk had earlier held but lost to the other party


They spent nearly 18K per voter to get that particular seat back

...

these dravidiyas cannot be underestimated in such matters, especially when 2024 results will have huge repercussions for the TN assembly elections fetching up down the road

Chetak'Saar, please tell me something new

The national narrative is decidedly against the DMK party and they can try to buy influence in their small corner. It is upto TN voters to be deluded by one-time cash and use it for drugs and hooch or join the national narrative. The choice is firmly in the court of TN voters and from my reading, they are going to vote definitely and definitely with their feet (that is kicking the dravida parties around).

2024 may be a start. Or a spark (I still think it will be a riptide/firestorm), but 2026 is gone case for the dravida parties, particularly the corrupt dravida limpets hanging around in a small but significant part of the country.

And let them spend. Make it costly for them to win elections by giving cash for votes. All of the drug money will come and bite their back. How long can they sustain? Will TN voters let an entire generation go waste? I do not think so.

disha ji,


This is not a wait and watch plan. the seats are needed now.

Modiji has places to go and that needs the political heft of good numbers of seats under his belt

For the first time, in a number of decades, the dravidiyas are staring down the barrel, under threat of an existential crisis. It remains to be seen how the strike rate for the contested seats pan out.

For the longest time, the almost free run of divisive forces, both internal and external, with a compound mix of political and religious vehemence, mostly driven with a separatist bent of mind, has gradually gathered momentum in the national, social, cultural, ideological, and sovereign space.

In TN, this cooked up and separatist dravidiya narrative is about 250 years old, give or take, in the making and has seeped deep into the brainwashed pores of these colonized zombies. These were the same zombies who supported the terrorist LTTE and idolized lucifer's spawn, the genocidal prabahakaran

there may be an inflexion point where the numbers of lost seats may end up panicking the dravidiyas. The plundered money and also the drug angle has hit them very badly because both kingpins are in custody.

Lurking in the dravidiya corner are the BIF brigades and the padre paltans and they are also the outfits which supported the terrorist LTTE and they continue to do so even now when this group has almost completely moved to India

Between now and 2026, the dravidiyas are going to be pulling out all the stops

Like the AAP being trapped, the dravidiya parties may have also been part of a well planned and executed gameplan to render them hors de combat.

only time will tell

[Vayutuvan]

In one particular TN Assembly seat, post Jaya's death, the going rate was 20K per person. A person known to me collected 80K for his family

Total amount?

[Sachin]

The secular blitz-kreig on social media, mainly Twitter at times is becoming nauseating. I don't think hard core BJP voters would change their minds any way, but don't know about the fence sitters. And off course, there are also people who call the bluff of the seculars by asking simple questions like "from where will you get the money?".

[nachiket]

Just saw Yashwant Deshmukh (CVoter) make a couple of good points in an interview, one which signals good news for the BJP and another which does not.

First point he made was that even in 1999 when the BJP won the election, the total vote share of the BJP was 4% lower than that of the Congress. This was one of the reasons why the 2004 debacle was possible because even a couple of % point swing could have immense consequences in such a scenario. Currently in their tracker the BJP is touching 40% voteshare on its own while the Congress is stuck at 20%. In 2019 the numbers were around 37 and 20. So the likelihood of a 2004 like surprise is very low.

However the not so good news for the BJP is regarding the expected heat waves during election season. He cited some analysis which predicts that on some election days the temperature in many seats could be over 40 degrees which would translate into a lower turnout. And many of these seats are currently in BJP's kitty. So how that impacts relative turnout between BJP and opposition in those seats is unknown and could throw up surprises. Same for the long weekends that people will get during election holidays. That might drive urban voting % lower. He mentioned that in 2004 the urban voting % fell by nearly 18% in some areas and BJP did very badly in urban areas.

I think BJP performance in this election is going to depend on how successful their cadre are in convincing people to come out and vote. That is where my worry lies. You don't want BJP voters to become complacent and think they can get away with skipping this time since Modiji will win anyway as per the media, and either stay indoors to escape the heat or go on a family trip. April-May is a really bad time to hold elections in India and we are only dealing with this issue because of Vajpayee's colossal error in 2004 in holding early elections.

[disha]

April-May is a really bad time to hold elections in India and we are only dealing with this issue because of Vajpayee's colossal error in 2004 in holding early elections.

Indian summers are hot, but the only window to hold elections in India are during the following time frames:

1. April-May. Kids are done with exams (mostly). There is no major economic activity going on in vast parts of India. No major festivals. No major agricultural activity.

2. March-April. Sankranti is over and the new year for most begins. Crops are harvested. However no parents will come out of the home since their kids are studying and appearing for exams.

The following cannot work:

3. June - September. Half of India is under deluge. The other half is busy sowing crop.

4. October - January. Harvesting and planning for the winter crop. Peak tourist season.

The solution for hot summer days is to actually let the polling begin very early in the day and close out at 8 PM in the evening. Lot of people will start coming from 5 PM onwards.

[nandakumar]

In one particular TN Assembly seat, post Jaya's death, the going rate was 20K per person. A person known to me collected 80K for his family

Total amount?

In Tirumangalam Assembly by-election (falling within Madurai Parliament Constituency) sometime in 2006-2011 all voters were given Rs 2000 irrespective of their economic status. Note that refusal was not an option. It cost, back then, no more than rupees 2 to 3 crore. Multiply that by 6 or 7 Assembly constituencies in a Parliamentary constituency the number comes to anything between 15 to 20 crore rupees. The cost can come down by more rational targeting so that money is given to fewer people even as the bribe money is hiked 10 fold. Since winning margin in a comfortable win in a Parliamentary election is roughly around 2 lakh votes, if you target 3 lakh voters per constituency you are looking at a price tag of Rs 50-60 crores.

[Pratyush]

^^^

Extrapolate that to an all India level, it's only about Rs 32600 crores.

[vijayk]

https://twitter.com/ssaratht/status/1780924676883005844
VOTE FOR THE GOAT Rap song

[vijayk]

@LiveLawIndia
Over 4 Crore VVPAT Slips Verified, No Mismatch Ever Found; EVM Tampering Impossible : ECI Tells Supreme Court | @khannagyanvi

[Mukesh.Kumar]

Where's Dilbu-ji when we need him the most? Elections start tomorrow and he's missing in action.

[KL Dubey]

Where's Dilbu-ji when we need him the most? Elections start tomorrow and he's missing in action.

Maybe he is busy contesting on INDI ticket to take his anti-jinx to a new level of effectiveness?

[KL Dubey]

However the not so good news for the BJP is regarding the expected heat waves during election season. He cited some analysis which predicts that on some election days the temperature in many seats could be over 40 degrees which would translate into a lower turnout.

How is this any different from 2014 and 2019 elections ? A major reason for BJP success in 2014 and 2019 was indeed the ground level organization that worked to get the voters out to the booth. Modi and Shah have always been closely connected with the organization during the LS elections, and from the number of publicized meetings this year, it is no different. Modi has been exhorting BJP workers to get the voters out in every meeting. Even from 2014 I remember Modi's slogan in every rally "pehle matdaaan phir jalpaan" (basically asking voters to get it done first thing in the morning). 2004 is ancient history. BJP of today is not anywhere similar to what it was then - and the opposition is currently a shadow of what it was in 2004.

I also think the timing of this election is perfect....it begins just after Ram Navami, thus extracting the maximum amount of mileage from the monumental achievement of Ram janmabhumi mandir.

On a lighter note, BJP has released a series of hilarious short videos on Youtube lampooning the INDI clowns...complete with lookalike actors and funny scenarios. Check them out.

[Vayutuvan]

... and either stay indoors to escape the heat or go on a family trip.

If it is hot outside, why would people go on a trip? Only two cities, Mumbai and Pune, have hill staions nearby - Lonawla and Khandala. Delhi, Hyderabad, Channai have nothing in their vicinity. B'lur folks can go to Mysore, I guess. But Mysore itself has lost its "coolness". Second tier tier cities are worse in that getting out of th city can take an hour or two.

[KL Dubey]

... and either stay indoors to escape the heat or go on a family trip.

If it is hot outside, why would people go on a trip? Only two cities, Mumbai and Pune, have hill staions nearby - Lonawla and Khandala. Delhi, Hyderabad, Channai have nothing in their vicinity. B'lur folks can go to Mysore, I guess. But Mysore itself has lost its "coolness". Second tier tier cities are worse in that getting out of th city can take an hour or two.

Over the years, odd and strange concerns like EVMs, weather, location of booths, etc have been raised. There are various elections going on in Bharat year around.

[KL Dubey]

Total amount?

In Tirumangalam Assembly by-election (falling within Madurai Parliament Constituency) sometime in 2006-2011 all voters were given Rs 2000 irrespective of their economic status. Note that refusal was not an option. It cost, back then, no more than rupees 2 to 3 crore.

Trying to understand this further.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirumang ... nstituency

Are you saying that all voters in this constituency were given money by one party, i.e. DMK in the 2009 by-election?

The voter turnout was 138,191 (88%)...so there were about 150,000 registered voters. Rs 2000 each means about Rs 30 cr, not Rs 2-3 crores. Even if Rs 2000 was covering whole families and not just an individual voter, the Rs 2-3 crore estimate seems way too low.

Furthermore, DMK got 57% vote share in the 2009 by-election, which means 43% voters took the money and still voted for someone else. So it may have worked to win the seat at the end of the day, but seems a very expensive way to win?

If they only target a smaller fraction of the voters to distribute money, it still seems risky since a lot of them could still give "dhokha" on the voting day.

While cash distribution is a real problem and is illegal in an election, have there been any analysis/studies of their actual impact?

[A_Gupta]

While waiting for June 4th, you might peruse this:
https://www.mmg.mpg.de/60561/WP_13-01_B ... a-vote.pdf

The abstract begins:

The 2012 Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections were characterized by report- edly-unprecedented flows of cash – a phenomenon has been described in both popu- lar and scholarly accounts as “vote buying.”

In the body:

The paper is motivated by a puzzle: while election season in ward 228 was indeed characterized by impressive – and quite visible – flows of cash, the final vote tally did not reflect monetary expenditure. That is, the candidate who spent the most money came nowhere near winning the election, while the candidate who won (by a land- slide) spent nowhere near as much money as some of her rivals.

The lack of correlation in ward 228 between expenditure and electoral outcome suggests that perhaps all the talk about ‘vote buying’ is a lot of nonsense. A cash- flush city simply got carried away, and anxious candidates threw money at voters thinking that they could buy votes – which ultimately they could not. Indeed, this line of explanation was frequently offered (by voters and candidates alike) in the aftermath of the election.

Yet at the same time, a parallel discourse emerged from the ranks of the party workers with whose ultimately-unsuccessful campaign I had been embedded: the money had been mismanaged. The wrong people had been put in charge of distributing money. Favoritism had been shown in cash distributions. And finally: not enough money had been distributed.

Given the lack of correlation between total expenditure and electoral outcome, how should these grumblings be interpreted? Should election-season giving – particularly in the form of cash transfers – be understood as the marketization of the vote? Iif not – and indeed, I will argue that it has not – then how might we understand the significance of cash at election time? In other words, what is all that money actually doing if it is not buying votes?

[A_Gupta]

Continuing:

This particular meeting seems to have served two purposes: first, in the context of widespread defections among Congress party workers, man on the pillow clarified to Seema any confusion over whether or not his people would vote for her, communicating to Seema that her future win would put her in debt directly to them. The meeting, in other words, firmed up an agreement: votes now in exchange for “work” over the next five years.

The formal offering of a cash gift thus functioned neither to purchase the votes of the individuals in the room (the leadership of which had already decided to support Seema), neither did it carrying any burden of reciprocity (votes were promised in exchange for future work). Rather, the cash worked as a public performance of Seema’s access to powerful, moneyed networks, as well as a show of generosity.

By handing over cash – not in an envelope moreover, but as a thick stack of notes – Seema demonstrated not only her beneficence, but also – significantly – that she has the means, knowledge, and material resources to act on it.

[Pratyush]

Yet people continue to spend of buying votes.

I know of a village panchayat election where cash was distributed in a certain Tola to a certain numbers of persons. The elections was lost by that number of votes from that particular Tola.

The common amount needed to win Panchayat elections is between 80 lakhs to 1.2 crores.

So there has to be some truth to the claims of votes being bought with cash.

[vijayk]

Sandhya Ravishankar
@sandhyaravishan
A lot of chaos this time. Most have not got booth slips. Party workers are not allowed near the booth to search for & help with booth slips. Voters standing in long queues only to be sent to other queues. Many saying they won't vote because they're fed up. #LokSabhaElections2024

[Sachin]

A lot of chaos this time. Most have not got booth slips. Party workers are not allowed near the booth to search for & help with booth slips.

Don't know what has changed this time. But at least 8-10 years back I have seen each party sending its workers to each home to distribute the booth slip. It will off course have the party symbol & candidate name, but it will also have the polling booth name & room number as well. The latest EPIC/Voter ID in paper form generally also have the polling booth details clearly mentioned. For example the one I have clearly says - "25x-Anganavadi kendra xxxxx , Room No 1". Things cannot be more specific than this.

[Sachin]

This time I am seeing an all out war from the secular, progressive, liberal gangs. Every group taking money from folks like G.Soros are now trying their level best to get the BJP out. On one front you have Shri. Pappu Ghandi & Co commanding the I.N.D.I.A gang whose main motto is freebies and the old 1960-1970 model socialism which ensures uniform level of poverty for the common citizens. The other front is Prashant Bhushan & Co who are trying to get the EVMs out of the elections. Ridiculous allegations and demands have been made in Supreme Court. Once the SC questions them, they go to twitter chest beating and wailing. One such drama happened yesterday. There was an allegation that VVPAT slips did not tally with the electronic votes casted. EC informs SC that reports of EVM error in Kerala are false . On the third front you have other minor players like IIT-IIM rascal Kejriwal and his chamchas. But the AAPtards are more on the hollering mode to generate sympathy waves (which may look more comical when compared to the other players).

On Twitter I also noticed few handles who look like real concerned & mature individuals who are trying to find the middle path on the usage of VVPAT and EVM. But I call them P Bhushan-Lite. The P Bhushan-Lite folks propose a scheme. Let each voter after casting get the VVPAT slip in his hand. He see & verify his vote and then put that in the VVPAT box and walk away. This looks all fine and dandy (and reasonable). But the catch is that voters can take the slip and walk away, or else swap it with some other slip. And then when there is a tally between VVPAT slips and electronic votes, there would be a mismatch. And that would be a strong reason to push for the old days of ballot boxes (with booth capturing being the next course of action). So the P Bhushan-Lite too are treachorous individuals who are trying to white wash their true intentions.

[saumitra_j]

A lot of chaos this time. Most have not got booth slips. Party workers are not allowed near the booth to search for & help with booth slips.

Don't know what has changed this time. But at least 8-10 years back I have seen each party sending its workers to each home to distribute the booth slip. It will off course have the party symbol & candidate name, but it will also have the polling booth name & room number as well. The latest EPIC/Voter ID in paper form generally also have the polling booth details clearly mentioned. For example the one I have clearly says - "25x-Anganavadi kendra xxxxx , Room No 1". Things cannot be more specific than this.

There is a mobile app from ECI called Voter Helpline available for both Android and iPhone that can easily find the booth. There is no need of a booth slip. In fact, even in 2014 somebody had curated an Android APP which did just that.

[Aditya_V]

I got the no.from ECI website and knew my 4 digit no. the booth, process took 3 mins to caste my vote

[Lisa]

On Twitter I also noticed few handles who look like real concerned & mature individuals who are trying to find the middle path on the usage of VVPAT and EVM. But I call them P Bhushan-Lite. The P Bhushan-Lite folks propose a scheme. Let each voter after casting get the VVPAT slip in his hand. He see & verify his vote and then put that in the VVPAT box and walk away. This looks all fine and dandy (and reasonable). But the catch is that voters can take the slip and walk away, or else swap it with some other slip. And then when there is a tally between VVPAT slips and electronic votes, there would be a mismatch. And that would be a strong reason to push for the old days of ballot boxes (with booth capturing being the next course of action). So the P Bhushan-Lite too are treachorous individuals who are trying to white wash their true intentions.

Ji one thing, VVPAT slip may be used for intimidation, ie, thugs can say show us proof that you voted for us = anonymity is destroyed.

[Sachin]

Ji one thing, VVPAT slip may be used for intimidation, ie, thugs can say show us proof that you voted for us = anonymity is destroyed.

Even without VVPAT slips in hand, politicians still have a way to identify the trend in a certain area. D.K Shivakumar's veiled threat to voters. This happened in Bangalore. He could make such threats, because he and his henchmen can get an approximate voting pattern after the vote counting. Each EVM has a capacity to hold approx 1000 votes. There is a paper audit trail on which EVM goes to which polling booth, in which village/ward in a taluq or election constituency. So he will be able to clearly know where the apartment dwellers have gone for voting and as a group who they have voted for.

[nandakumar]

Ji one thing, VVPAT slip may be used for intimidation, ie, thugs can say show us proof that you voted for us = anonymity is destroyed.

Even without VVPAT slips in hand, politicians still have a way to identify the trend in a certain area. D.K Shivakumar's veiled threat to voters. This happened in Bangalore. He could make such threats, because he and his henchmen can get an approximate voting pattern after the vote counting. Each EVM has a capacity to hold approx 1000 votes. There is a paper audit trail on which EVM goes to which polling booth, in which village/ward in a taluq or election constituency. So he will be able to clearly know where the apartment dwellers have gone for voting and as a group who they have voted for.

I recall that EVMs would be pooled and votes cast would be tabulated for the pooled machines.

[Sachin]

I recall that EVMs would be pooled and votes cast would be tabulated for the pooled machines.

That was a proposal. There was a scheme to have a totalizer device which could get data from multiple EVMs and then give a consolidated figure. But there was a strong feeling that, during the totalization data could be manipulated (and there will not be much evidence left for trace back). So this does not happen now. The data from each polling station is available for each political party, and that is how certain governments do gerrymandering (shuffling constituencies based on polling patterns).

[Sachin]

ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE INSTRUCTION MANUAL - This would give a good insight on how EVMs work.