Union minister Maneka Gandhi had recently said that if Muslims don't vote for her, she won't help them. A day later, Fatehpura MLA Ramesh Katara told voters that they have installed cameras in polling booths to ascertain which party an individual has voted for. These remarks, at a time when the country is set for the Lok Sabha elections, have led to a massive debate: Are our votes indeed safe, and is the secret ballot process vulnerable under the present EVM debate? Serving and retired officials of the Election Commission, as also members of political parties, were unanimous in saying that individual votes cast through an EVM will always be secret. However, on account of booth-wise counting, they admit that votes collected from a particular booth can be tracked, and it can be checked whom citizens of a neighbourhood have voted for. Indians were guaranteed a secret ballot by the Representation of People Act, 1951. In the past, when paper ballots were used, the Conduct of Election Rules of 1961 required votes from various booths to be mixed in drums before being counted. This ensured that ballots from a small polling area — street, colony, village — were anonymised. Neela Satyanarayan, former Maharashtra chief election commissioner, told DNA, "It's possible for parties to surmise who has voted for whom. Machines in the polling centres are tracked, and parties can anticipate through the tally and the timing." A retired officer from the Election Commission reiterated that individual vote will always remain secret. "However, once votes are counted booth-wise, it can be checked for whom the votes were cast, as it's different from the past when ballot papers were mixed manually," he added. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said a fear psychosis has been created in the minds of Dalits and minorities, especially by asking them to vote for a particular person or party. "TN Seshan, during his stint as the CEC, introduced mixing of ballot papers to maintain secrecy. But in the present EVM regime, it's a different story altogether. We have demanded going back to the ballot paper era," he added. On the other hand, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray's media adviser Harshal Pradhan said the saffron party was arguing in favour of having EVMs in addition to a paper back-up, so "secrecy can be maintained at every level". He added that this was done by the NDA government. However, State Congress spokesman Ratnakar Mahajan said that it's possible to identify who has voted for whom because of the EVMs used. He added that this has resulted in some leaders openly threatening voters, and calling them on to vote on religious or caste lines. "The government will have to seriously think about reintroducing ballot papers to protect secrecy," he said.

Stay updated with all the Mumbai Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.