Pawar’s grand nephew seeks Musk’s help to discredit EVMs

Mumbai: NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar has urged the Election Commission to seek the help of businessman and investor Elon Musk to examine the authenticity of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Experts from Musk, who is renowned in AI and robotics, should be called to scrutinize the EVMs, he said on Friday.

“If there is so much discussion on the (credibility of) EVMs, then the Election Commission should take its own experts to examine these machines. Experts of Elon Musk, who is the richest man in the world and well-known name in the field of AI and robotics, should also be called to ascertain the authenticity of EVMs,” said Pawar.

His remarks came on the backdrop of doubts expressed by the former BJP MP Sujay Vikhe Patil over the EVMs. Vikhe Patil, who lost from the Ahmednagar constituency in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, has filed an application with the Election Commission for recounting of votes in 40 polling stations, expressing doubts about the counting of votes by EVMs.

“BJP leaders say that EVMs should not be doubted. But Vikhe Patil now seems to be speaking against his own party leaders,” said the Karjat-Jamkhed MLA, who is the grand nephew of NCP founder Sharad Pawar.

Earlier too, Rohit Pawar had said that Musk’s comments on EVMs should be taken seriously. “The Election Commission and the government should investigate the EVMs to maintain the transparency in its functioning,” he had said.

Few days back, Musk, a Tesla Motors CEO and X boss, had called for the elimination of electronic voting machines (EVMs) over hacking concerns. “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” he wrote on X.