Draft:Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta

  • Comment: The writing feels pretty one-sided about his activities against the government around the election. The article also seems mostly about this one case, so I’m not convinced this isn’t a single-event situation. Htanaungg (talk) 08:41, 20 December 2025 (UTC)

Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta
Born1968 or 1969 (age 56–57)[1]
Other nameRahul Mehta
EducationB.Tech. from IIT Delhi, M.S. from Rutgers University, United States
Occupations
Known forMaking claims of tampering about Indian Electronic Voting Machine
TitleNational President
Political party
Right to Recall Party
FatherChimanbhai Mehta
Years active2011–present
Last updated: 10 September 2025
Websitehttps://www.rahulmehta.com/

Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta is an Indian software engineer, socio-political and election reform activist. He is known for campaigning against the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Indian elections. He has designed an alleged model of Indian Electronic voting machine and made claims of tampering about Indian EVM used by Election Commission of India.[2][3][4] In support of him Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan posted Mehta's video on Twitter and Congress party leader Digvijay singh demonstrated Mehta's alleged model of EVM and both made claims of alleged tampering about Indian EVM.[5][6][7][8][9] Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar and Maharastra Navnirman Sena supremo Raj Thakrey demonstrated Mehta's alliged model of EVM.[10][11] However, Rajiv Kumar, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, rejected all claims about rigging and tampering of their EVM.[12][13] He also campaigns for the enactment of Right to Recall laws for all citizens in India.[14][15][16] Mehta is also the founder of the Right to Recall Party, an Indian registered unrecognised political party.[17][18]

Early life and education

He is the son of Chimanbhai Mehta who was former Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, with a Bachelor of Technology in computer science. In 1990, he moved to the United States and did his post graduation from Rutgers University, New Jersy and worked as a software engineer for eight years.[19]

Activism

Campaign against use of EVM in Elections

Mehta's activism against EVMs is based on his concerns about the alleged insider tampering of Indian EVM. In July 2019, he attended a National Consultation Meeting against EVMs at the Constitution Club of New Delhi, where he first claimed that Indian EVMs and VVPATs could be subverted and pre-programmed.[20]

Making of alleged model of Indian EVM-VVPAT machine

In October 2019, he again claimed that EVMs in India could be tampered by posting a video on his official Youtube Channel.[17] In his video he demonstrated an alleged model of Indian Electronic voting machine and showed an alleged method of tampering in his machine. In December 2019, he demonstrated same machine in a public meeting at Jantar Mantar, Delhi.[4]

Prashant Bhushan posted Mehta's video

On 23 December 2023 Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer of Supreme Court of India, posted Mehta's video of his alleged model of EVM on Twitter.[9]

Consequences after posting video

On 6 January 2024 a one day protest organised by a group of Supreme Court lawyers at Jantar Mantar demonstrated Mehta's alleged model of EVM and claimed that Indian EVM can also be manipulated and paper votes stored in VVPAT and electronic votes stored in Control Unit (CU) can be stolen.[21] The video of this demonstration broadcast by many YouTube channels including National Dastak,[22] Punya Prasun Bajpai,[23] and Ajit Anjum[24]. On 18 January, Election commission launches nationwide campaign to dispel doubts over EVMs, and VVPATs.[25]

On 24 January 2024 Congress leader Digvijaya Singh held a press conference in which he showed same alleged model of EVM made by Mehta and made allegations on ECI.[7] Singh also said that he will launch a massive movement to show the people of the entire state how their votes can be allegedly manipulated.[26] In response to that, Madhya pradesh BJP State President V. D. sharma strongly reacted and said that Congress is losing, so they are blaming EVMs.[27]

On 9 Feburary 2024 Supreme Court of India rejects urgent hearing of petition filed by Association for Democratic Reforms on the basis of Mehta's alleged EVM demo. Kapil Sibal and Prashant Bhushan were the lawyers appointed by ADR for this petition. However ECI officials in court said that all issues have been responded to and all kind of doubts have already been cleared.[9]

Formation of EVM Hatao Sena

In January 2024 Mehta with his companions founded an unregistered organisation called EVM Hatao Sena. On 22 March EVM Hatao Sena, organised a public meeting at Press Club of India in which Sandeep Pandey, National Secretary of Socialist Party (India) demonstrated the same alleged model of EVM and showed its alleged tampering process and demanded that ECI should give paper ballot option to every voter at every booth in 2024 Indian General Election.[28] The video of this meeting was broadcast by official YouTube channel of Indian National Congress party.[29][30] However Election Commission of India responded to this video claiming it is as fake.[31][32]

After this Evm Hatao Sena organised public meetings in various cities of India including Jaipur, Delhi,[28] Bangalore,[33] Lucknow[34][35][36], Varanasi,[37] Patna,[38][39] Bhubaneswar[40][41] and Chandigarh[42] on the issue of alleged tampering in Indian EVMs. However on 18 May 2024 ECI officials at Chandigarh stopped their meeting citing that the organization did not have permission for the said meeting.[42]

Response by Election Commission of India

The former Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar of the Election Commission of India defended the usage of EVMs as an efficient and tamper-proof method of conducting elections. In response of videos of alleged dummy EVM-VVPAT demo circulated on social media, Rajiv Kumar mocked on so-called social media EVM experts in his press conference.[43]

Campaign for Right to Recall Laws

Mehta is a campaigner of the Right to Recall laws, which would allow voters to remove elected officials before the end of their term.[44] He has advocated for the law through his written drafts, public campaigns, and political participation.[45][46] Right to Recall has been under government consideration in states like Karnataka at Gram panchayat level but his party has promoted law drafts on the post of PM, CM and cabinet ministers.[47][48]

Formation of Right to Recall Group

In 1999, he returned to India due to the deteriorating health of his parents and on the advice of his father he started activism and started a campaign to get the Right to Recall law implemented in India. For this, he founded an unregistered organisation called Right to Recall Group in 2006 and started campaigning for it.[15][16]

Establishment of Right to Recall Party

Thirteen years after forming the Right to Recall group, Mehta along with his companions founded a new political party called the Right to Recall Party in 2019.[4][49][15] The RRP contested its first election in the  2019 Indian general election[50] and fielded candidates in 14 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country.[51][52] However, all the candidates lost their deposits. In 2025 Delhi Assembly elections, the party fielded multiple candidates.[53][54][55]

Allegations

In November 2015 Sandesh (Indian newspaper) published a news article on Mehta in which they claimed that mehta got funds worth crores of rupees from abroad in his trusts.[56] Although Mehta denied all these allegations.[57] In February 2020 it was claimed by ECI that seventy registered-unrecognized parties including the Right to Recall Party received funds via electoral bonds.[58] Mehta denied all the allegations made by Election Commission of India.[59][60]

Publications

Mehta wrote two books, in 2009 Mehta wrote a book titled as Praja Adheen Raja.[61] After that in 2020 he wrote an another book titled as Vote Vapsi Dhan Vapsi.[62][63]

See also

References

  1. ^ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/elections/lok-sabha-elections/gujarat/gandhinagar/candidateshow/rahul-chimanbhai-mehta-2887
  2. ^ WARRIER, SHOBHA. "'EVM Is Useless As The Black Glass Helps Manipulation'". Rediff.com. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  3. ^ Makwana, Sonia (8 April 2024). "Why are questions being raised on the Electronic Voting Machine, is there vote theft in EVM?". The Mooknayak (in Hindi). Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "Engineer Rahul Mehta has shown live demo of manipulation in EVM". Janjwar. 2024.
  5. ^ PTI (31 December 2023). "Have been saying since 2003, I don't trust EVMs: Digvijaya Singh". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  6. ^ Sahay, Shalini (25 January 2024). "ECI marks Voters' Day with EVM demo, but here's another demo you cannot miss". National Herald. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Digvijay Singh Showed Live demo of manipulation after voting in EVM machine". Hindustan (newspaper) (in Hindi). Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  8. ^ "Ruckus over EVM in MP: Former CM Digvijay Singh raises questions". News18 India (in Hindi). 24 January 2024. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  9. ^ a b c "'No End To Your Suspicion': SC Rejects Urgent Hearing On EVMs, Snubs Doubters". Times Now. 9 February 2024. Retrieved 26 November 2025.
  10. ^ "मतचोरीच्या आरोपानंतर मतचोरीचं प्रात्यक्षिक, IIT च्या टीमने NCP च्या शिबिरात थेट डेमो दाखवला!" [After allegations of vote rigging, a demonstration of vote rigging, IIT team showed a live demo at NCP camp!]. Maharashtra Times (in Marathi). Retrieved 26 November 2025.
  11. ^ "Raj Thackeray: मतचोरी नेमकी कशी होते? राज ठाकरेंनी दाखवलं प्रात्यक्षिक, EVM आणि VVPAT द्वारे घोळ होत असल्याचा दावा" [Raj Thackeray: How exactly does vote rigging happen? Raj Thackeray showed a demonstration, claims that EVM and VVPAT are being tampered with]. Maharashtra Times (in Marathi). Retrieved 26 November 2025.
  12. ^ "Video: Election Commissioner's poetic take on EVM 'hacking' claims". India Today. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  13. ^ "Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar mocks social media EVM experts amid laughs | TOI Original - Times of India Videos". The Times of India. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  14. ^ "This IIT graduate makes 'right to recall' his poll plank". Indian Express. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  15. ^ a b c "Fight for recall right". Ahmedabad Mirror. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  16. ^ a b "Right-to-recall activist spurred by Anna's win". Ahmedabad Mirror. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  17. ^ a b "In a first, a newspaper ad calls for action against EVMs". National Herald. 26 October 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  18. ^ "A Satyagrah Against EVM And For Ballot Paper - Kashmir Times (Since 1954): Multi-media web news platform". Kashmir Times. 13 April 2024. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  19. ^ "Gujarat Elections 2017: More educated in politics, the better". Ahmedabad Mirror. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  20. ^ "From all over India, farmers and these groups are raising issue of 'Back to Ballot'". Aaj Tak. 2019.
  21. ^ "Lawyer demonstrates at Jantar Mantar how EVM can be hacked". Radiance Weekly. 21 February 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  22. ^ National Dastak (6 January 2024). EVM hacked in front of everyone / BIG REPORT BY BEAUTY GIRI ON EVM HACKING. Retrieved 16 June 2024 – via YouTube.
  23. ^ Punya Prasun Bajpai (13 January 2024). Election Commission & EVM: Election Commission's crisis...on the streets with EVM!. Retrieved 16 June 2024 – via YouTube.
  24. ^ Live demo of EVM hacking at Jantar Mantar? | By Ajit Anjum | Facebook. Retrieved 16 June 2024 – via www.facebook.com.
  25. ^ Bhaumik, Anirban. "EC launches nationwide campaign to dispel doubts over EVMs, VVPATs amid concerns raised by Oppn". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  26. ^ "With dummy machine, Diggy tries to prove EVM can be tampered". The Times of India. 25 January 2024. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  27. ^ "Two votes were cast, four slips were drawn... Digvijay Singh demonstrated hacking and said - this could happen". Navbharat Times (in Hindi). Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  28. ^ a b "How EVMs can be compromised, live demo presented by EVM Hatao Sena activists". Radiance Weekly. 8 April 2024. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  29. ^ Indian National Congress (11 April 2024). This is how EVMs are played with during elections.. | Live EVM test on camera in front of the media | You will be amazed. Retrieved 17 June 2024 – via YouTube.
  30. ^ "Lok Sabha Election 2024: Could EVMs be tampered with? Find out what Pawan Sharma says". samacharnama.com (in Hindi). 12 April 2024. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  31. ^ "False Claim: A person in a video posted on a YT Channel is claiming that EVM can be hacked". Twitter.
  32. ^ "Fact Check: Video Claims Electronic Voting Machines Can Be Hacked. Here's The Truth". Times Now. 13 April 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  33. ^ Bhardwaj, Kushagra. "Socialist Party stages demonstration in Bengaluru against misuse of VVPAT". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  34. ^ "No ballot papers? No voting: Uttar Pradesh voters pose walkout threat over doubts on EVM". The Telegraph (India).
  35. ^ "Lok Sabha Election: Experiments show EVMs are not reliable, voting should be done using ballot papers only". Gaon Ke Log (in Hindi). 7 April 2024. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  36. ^ "Why are questions being raised on electronic voting machines?". The Mooknayak. 2024.
  37. ^ "Election Commission of India's claim that there is no fault in EVM is not possible: Live demo from engineer proved this wrong". Janjwar. 2024.
  38. ^ "EVM Hatao Sena showed-how vote theft and manipulation can happen in EVMs, said ballot papers should also be there at every booth". Dainik Bhaskar. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  39. ^ "Demo of tampering with VVPAT using black glass". Prabhat Khabar. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  40. ^ "Demand to have ballot papers along with EVMs in polling stations". Sambad. 9 May 2024. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  41. ^ "Ballot paper can check vote theft". Odisha Post epapaer. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  42. ^ a b "Press meet stopped after ec teams intervention". The Tribune (India).
  43. ^ "Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar mocks social media EVM experts amid laughs". The Times of India. Retrieved 7 September 2025.
  44. ^ "global track record of right to recall is not promising". Hindustan (newspaper) (in Hindi). 1 October 2024. Retrieved 26 November 2025.
  45. ^ "This IIT graduate makes 'Right to Recall' his poll plank". The Indian Express. 2012.
  46. ^ "More educated in politics, the better". Ahmedabad Mirror. 2017.
  47. ^ "Karnataka government drafting Right to Recall bill for rural voters". The Economic Times. 2014.
  48. ^ "Fight for Recall Right". Ahmedabad Mirror. 2012.
  49. ^ "Lok Sabha elections 2019: New parties on the poll block". Hindustan Times. 28 April 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  50. ^ "Lok Sabha Polls 2019: List of Political parties in Lok Sabha Elections". The Times of India. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  51. ^ "Lok Sabha Polls 2019: List of Political parties in Lok Sabha Elections". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  52. ^ "IndiaVotes PC: Party-wise performance for 2019". IndiaVotes. Retrieved 14 February 2023.[dead link]
  53. ^ "Right to Recall Party fielded 21 candidates in Delhi Assembly Elections". Jharkhand Varta. 2020.
  54. ^ "One more party enters in assembly polls 2025". Navbharat Times. 2025.
  55. ^ "More than 150 small political parties contesting, including Right to Recall Party". GNTTV. 2024.
  56. ^ "With the intention of defaming the country, Rahul Mehta opened a 'Right to Recall' shop" (PDF). Sandesh (Indian newspaper) (in Gujarati). Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  57. ^ "Reply to lies printed by Sandesh newspaper against Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta - Gujarati". Youtube. 21 November 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  58. ^ Chhibber, Maneesh (10 February 2020). "These parties don't have a fixed symbol but still got cash through electoral bonds". ThePrint. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  59. ^ Jha, Somesh (6 June 2022). "Not 105, Only 19 Parties Got Electoral Bonds; BJP Pockets 67.8% in 3 Years". The Quint. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  60. ^ "Debunking a 'Sealed' Myth: Only 17 Political Parties Of 105 In EC List Got Electoral Bonds — Article 14". article-14.com. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  61. ^ Mehta, Rahul Chimanbhai (10 September 2012). Praja Adheen Raja - Right to Recall (PDF). Daideepya Chandra Bhargava. ASIN B009CLM2PE.
  62. ^ Mehta, Rahul Chimanbhai; Sharma, Pawan Kumar (14 December 2020). VoteVapsi DhanVapsi: Manifesto of Right to Recall Party (registered) (in Hindi). Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta.
  63. ^ Team, Editorial (22 April 2023). "Vote Vapasi Dhan Vapasi: Solution for all Problems in India". Unrevealed Files. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
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