Kasaragod: It began as a hush-hush conversation, grew into a murmur and, nearly three months after the Assembly election results were declared, has now burst into the open -- with talk of EVM hacking, German and Italian technology and an alleged ₹40 lakh price tag for a favourable result.

On Friday, July 24, Congress leader Adv B M Jamal Patel, the man at the centre of the controversy, stepped before the media to deny the allegations. Jamal, who was the chief election agent of Udma MLA K Neelakandan, is accused of offering to thwart an alleged BJP plan to hack EVMs in the Manjeshwar, Kasaragod and Udma constituencies, and then use German and Italian technology to turn the results in favour of the UDF -- of course for a price.

The allegations, he said, were "completely fabricated" and part of a conspiracy to tarnish his reputation and the UDF's image in Udma.

But the allegations have refused to go away.

Two UDF leaders, one a former MLA and another a mandalam president, confirmed to Onmanorama that the UDF Kasaragod district committee discussed the "attempt to swindle the UDF and its candidates" for nearly one-and-a-half hours at a meeting held on Thursday. "The committee decided to write to the UDF state committee seeking an inquiry into the attempt to swindle the UDF and its candidates by offering to hack EVMs," said one of the leaders. The former MLA said the letter would be sent on Saturday, July 25.

The hacking claim
The controversy centres on allegations that Adv Jamal approached UDF leaders and candidates before the results were declared and claimed that the BJP had plans to hack EVMs. To be sure, after the election on April 9, the EVMs were stored in the strongrooms for nearly a month till the counting day on May 4.

Adv Jamal is an influential Congress leader, a stature he built during his long association with the Waqf administration. He was appointed CEO of the Kerala Waqf Board in 2001, when he was the Youth Congress district president. After a two-year stint as secretary of the Central Waqf Council, he returned to the Kerala Waqf Board as CEO in 2018 and continued in the post until his retirement in 2022.

According to sources, he was in line to become the Kasaragod District Congress president after the Assembly election.

According to UDF leaders, Adv Jamal allegedly claimed that the BJP's candidates were set to win in Kasaragod and Manjeshwar segments, and that he had access to experts and technology capable of countering the alleged operation. The alleged price: ₹40 lakh, with ₹15 lakh to be paid upfront, according to the allegations discussed within the UDF.

The technology, Jamal allegedly claimed, involved German and Italian systems that could be used to hack the EVMs again and turn the results in favour of the UDF.

According to the allegations, Jamal reportedly told UDF leaders that A K M Ashraf, the UDF candidate in Manjeshwar, would lose by around 2,600 votes. "When UDF district committee reached out to Ashraf, he assured them that he was winning by at least 10,000 votes," said a UDF leader. Ashraf went on to win by a record 29,252 votes, with a vote share of 51.62 per cent.

The allegations also relate to the Kasaragod and Udma constituencies, where the UDF candidates Kallatra Mahin Haji and K Neelakandan won.

Jamal, however, has denied making such offers.

At a press conference, he said that during the election period he was in regular contact only with UDF's Udma candidate Neelakandan, though he helped with nomination papers of all five UDF candidates in the district. "I have neither met nor spoken over the phone to UDF candidates Kallatra Mahin Haji and A K M Ashraf during the election," he said.

Jamal alleged that the claim that he had demanded ₹40 lakh to prevent EVM hacking was part of a conspiracy. "Those making the allegation have not said who paid the money or who lost the money. If a financial transaction actually took place, the three candidates should clarify the matter," he said.

LDF candidate queers the pitch
But the LDF's candidate in Kasaragod constituency, Shanavas Padhoor, queered the pitch by claiming that he was approached by a "common friend" saying Adv Jamal had the wherewithal to hack the EVMs in his favour. "That was in late March, one or two days after I filed the nomination papers," Padhoor, the former vice-president of Kasaragod District Panchayat, told Onmanorama. "He told me that Jamal can help hack EVMs and ensure my victory. I told him I believed in democracy, and I would win even without hacking the EVMs," said Padhoor. He refused to name the common friend.

At the press conference, Adv Jamal said he did not know who had contacted Padhoor in his name and urged that any demand for money using his name must be seriously investigated.

To this, Padhoor said Adv Jamal must subject himself to a lie-detector test to prove his innocence. However, neither Adv Jamal nor Padhoor have filed a police complaint. The UDF, too, is trying to resolve it internally.

Padhoor said he was reluctant to dismiss the EVM-hacking claim as merely an elaborate attempt to swindle money, particularly in light of what happened after the election. "After the results, I started thinking: perhaps this was not a financial scam. Perhaps the EVMs were hacked. How else could the UDF have got its predictions so right -- whether it was the number of seats, Pinarayi Vijayan trailing for five rounds, or the cut-outs congratulating UDF candidates as MLAs-elect before the counting?" he said. Padhoor even suggested that the District Congress Committee could have paid Adv Jamal to hack the EVMs. "If you remember, Jamal was caught wearing Meta glasses with a camera inside a booth in Udma," he said. Though Adv Jamal maintained that the camera was not recording, police had booked him.

Adv Jamal linked the allegations to an attempt to damage his prospects within the Congress. "I am not in a situation where I need to take money to live. I am a practising lawyer," he said.

He said the allegations had surfaced at a time when organisational restructuring was expected in the Congress. "Some leaders had told me that my name was being considered for the post of DCC president. I believe that is the motive behind this campaign," he alleged.

But, according to Congress sources, Adv Jamal's political fortunes may already have taken a hit. He had enjoyed the backing of Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan, a party leader said. "He has lost that backing now, and with it, his chances of becoming the DCC president have also become bleak," the leader said.