'If only EVMs were there before '

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">AHMEDABAD: "If only ..." was all that BJP MLA from Sayajigunj Jitendra Sukhadia could say as Gujarat voted for the 14th Lok Sabha on Tuesday with electronic voting machines (EVMs) in every booth that the EC said ensured there was "no scope for invalid votes." Sukhadia had lost the Vadodara seat in the 1996 LS polls to the Congress candidate by just 17 votes, in an election that saw 13,405 invalid votes polled.<br /><br />Sukhadia, who later won the Assembly elections in 2002, feels that "there was foul play and that EVMs would have ensured his win by about 7,000 to 8,000 votes".<br /><br />His opponent then, Satyajit Gaekwad, who fought again this year, too wishes it was the day of EVMs.For, he believes it would have increased his margin and given him a convincing win.<br /><br />The 11 times that Gujarat has gone to polls since its creation in 1960, there have been instances, except in 1967, when the number of invalid votes have been higher than the margins between the winner and the runners-up. And many like Sukhadia feel technology should have entered the poll arena much earlier as analysts say the absence of invalid votes by use of EVMs may have been decisive.<br /><br />It is not just the Sukhadiya-Gaekwad standoff. Statistics from other elections also make interesting reading. In 1996, Manibhai Chaudhari, contesting from Valsad on a BJP ticket, managed to beat the Congress’ Uttam Patel by 368 votes. The number of rejected votes stood at 10,043. In 1989, Congressman Shashikant Jamod had polled just 552 votes more than JD candidate Pravinsinh Jadeja in the Bhavanagar seat. But the number of invalid votes cast was 9,957.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />In 1999, instances where rejected votes outnumbered the winner’s margin, rose to five. In Kutch, BJP’s Pushpadan Gadhvi defeated Babubhai Meghji Shah of the Congress by 4,315 votes and the invalid votes touched 9,822. In Dhandhuka, Ratilal Varma of the BJP beat Congress Manubhai Parmar by 5,223 votes with the invalid votes touching 10,701.<br /><br />The Dahod seat saw BJP’s Babubhai Katara polling 12,431 votes over the Congress candidate, Somji Damor, while the rejected votes stood at 14,385. In Anand, 12,540 invalid votes were registered as BJP’s Dipak Patel won against Congress candidate Ishwar Chavda by 3,661 votes.<br /><br />Chhota Udepur had a wide gap between the invalid votes and the winning margin. Ramsinh Rathwa (BJP) secured 1,198 votes over Naran Rathwa of the Congress. The invalid votes: 15,225.<br /><br />The polls in 1998 saw the difference between the winner’s margin and the invalid votes go up to five figures. BJP candidate from Surendranagar Bhavna Dave won by 9,661 votes, defeating Congress’ Sanat Mehta, and the invalid votes cast were 34,724, the difference being 25,063 votes. In Sabarkantha, Congress candidate Nisha Chaudhari won against BJP’s Kanubhai Patel by 9,866 votes. The invalid vote tally was 30,214 resulting, a difference of 20,348.<br /><br />In 1999, the tribal seats in Gujarat saw the number of invalid votes cross the fivefigure mark, while many urban constituencies clocked low invalid votes like in Ahmedabad (7) and Gandhinagar (23). High rejection of votes was seen in reserved seats of Mandvi (2.65 per cent), Chhota Udepur (2.89 per cent), Valsad (2.41 per cent) and Dahod (3.01 per cent) compared to the total number of votes polled. Invalid votes in rural constituencies like Kutch and Junagadh stood at 2.49 per cent and 2.25 per cent respectively. <br /><br /><formid=526372></formid=526372></div> </div>