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Introspect on Your Punjab Performance, Unfair to Blame EVMs, EC Tells AAP

Introspect on Your Punjab Performance, Unfair to Blame EVMs, EC Tells AAP

Election Commission of India (Photo: Umesh Sharma/News18)

New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday advised the Aam Aadmi Party to “introspect” on its Punjab performance and said it’s “unfair to blame EVMs”.

AAP which was widely expected to win the elections won 20 seats in the Punjab Assembly, came second in 26 constituencies while over two dozen AAP candidates lost their security deposit.

The AAP wrote to the Election Commission, alleging large scale rigging and tampering of EVMs in Punjab and demanding verification of paper trail.

AAP’s National Secretary Pankaj Gupta said his party analysed booth-wise voting pattern and reached a conclusion that electronic voting machines were tampered with.

There is “clear and irrefutable evidence of manipulation of results at polling booths” in the Punjab Assembly polls, he alleged.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on March 15 also alleged that manipulation of EVMs may have led to the AAP’s poor showing in Punjab and said it could be part of a conspiracy to keep the party out of power in the state.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati too alleged tampering of EVMs during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

In another development, the EC is set to buy next generation EVMs that become “inoperable” the moment attempts are made to tinker with it, a move which comes amid claims by some parties that the machines were tampered with during the recent Assembly polls.

ALSO READ: Alleging EVM Tampering, Congress, AAP Demand Return of Ballot Paper

First Published: April 2, 2017, 5:48 PM IST