Karnataka tech minister Priyank Kharge writes to CEC Gyanesh Kumar, makes fresh bid for EVM audit

Bengaluru: Karnataka's IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge has made a fresh proposal to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on having the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) scrutinised under a court-monitored audit through an 'ethical hackathon' hosted by Karnataka.

Priyank's proposal comes just days after the Congress government decided to bring back ballot papers for all local body elections, citing lack of trust in the EVMs.

"At a time when serious questions are being raised about the independence and the integrity of our elections, it becomes even more urgent to adopt proposals that improve transparency. Ignoring them only deepens doubts," Priyank stated.

Priyank pointed out that he had written to the previous CEC Rajiv Kumar, in December 2024, on allowing "an independent technical audit" of the EVMs "from hardware to software, vote recording to counting".

Such an exercise will be backed by the Karnataka government, Priyank said.

"With our strong technology and R&D ecosystem, I had proposed that Karnataka is well placed to carry out such a transparent exercise under judicial and industry oversight to rigorously test the EVM architecture and address public perception issues around electoral integrity," Priyank stated. "My intent has always been to address concerns and strengthen public faith in the system," he added.

In his December 2024 letter to Rajiv Kumar, Priyank recalled that the Election Commission had challenged political parties in 2017 to test EVMs. "...it is important to note that political parties lack the technical expertise to participate effectively," he stated. "For this exercise to have real value, it must be extended to research institutions like the IISc, IIT, IIIT etc along with reputed private technology R&D players who possess the necessary technical prowess and resources to meaningfully test the machines," he wrote.

Karnataka, Priyank said, is the world's 4th largest technology ecosystem and home to R&D centres of leading global companies.

"We're backed by some of the premier academic institutions and are uniquely equipped to lead this effort," he stated. "With our unmatched technical expertise and innovation ecosystem, Government of Karnataka is willing to take on this responsibility of conducting an ethical hackathon for your esteemed institution," he stated.

Govt to take ordinance route?

The state government has started drafting laws to enable the reintroduction of ballot papers for upcoming local body polls.

The Bills being drafted will also give the State Election Commission (SEC) the power to prepare the electoral rolls.

The government may promulgate an ordinance to give effect to these Bills. This may come up during the Cabinet meeting scheduled on September 11.