Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal hit out at the Election Commission on Monday, alleging that tampering of electronic voting machines was helping the Centre’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in elections.
His fresh salvo came on the day a combined opposition will launch a campaign to step up pressure on the poll panel over alleged tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and press for the use of ballot paper in elections.
Thirteen political parties, including the Congress and the Left, will visit the commission around 5pm. This was decided at a meeting of the opposition parties in the Parliament House complex in the morning. On Wednesday, these parties will meet President Pranab Mukherjee to submit a memorandum on the issue.
At a press conference in Delhi on Monday, Kejriwal asked why the poll panel was planning to use “tampered” EVMs in the upcoming civic elections in Delhi.
The chorus against EVMs has gained momentum after the recently held assembly elections in five states, with Kejriwal’s AAP and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party spearheading a campaign on the issue. The Election Commission, however, has said the machines can’t be tampered with.
Machines being used in Delhi for #MCDelections2017 will come from Rajasthan. Why is it necessary?: @ArvindKejriwal @htTweets @htdelhi pic.twitter.com/dgfimxRPnv
— Ritam Halder (@ritam_de_scribe)April 10, 2017
Apart from a Congress delegation, Kejriwal has met poll panel officials and told them that EVMs were being repeatedly fudged and that their software could be faulty. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav too weighed in on the controversy, demanding an inquiry into allegations of EVM fraud.
A fresh row erupted after a purported video of a voting machine trial ahead of the b-polls in Madhya Pradesh showed the paper trail attached to it generating a receipt for the BJP even as the state chief electoral officer Saleena Singh pressed the button for the Samajwadi Party candidate.
Source: HindustanTimes