The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday staged a “live demonstration” of alleged electronic voting machine manipulation in the Delhi assembly.
AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed that anyone knowing a “secret code” can tamper with the EVMs and the code can be fed into a machine while casting vote.
The Election Commission has time and again rubbished allegations that EVMs can be programmed to favour any particular party.
Before Bhardwaj’s demonstration, Kejriwal tweeted, “Saurabh Bhardwaj will reveal the truth behind a big conspiracy in the country. Satyameva Jayate”.
Bhardwaj, who represents the Greater Kailash constituency, claimed that in his capacity as an engineer, he had extensively worked in this area and was aware of how the machines can be fiddled with.
“I have brought in front of you a machine which is exactly like an EVM machine. It is the machine which decides the mandate. This is the same machine by which people voted in the 2014 elections. The Central government is today dependent on this machine only,” Bharadwaj said in the assembly.
Bharadwaj explained the two units into which the machine is divided. He then exhibited a small voting procedure.
He explained how each voter comes and presses the button opposite to the party symbol which he wants to vote for.
Bharadwaj then explained that a party candidate, posing himself as the voter, comes and enters the secret code. Once the code is entered, all the votes go in favour of that party.
“There are two units — control unit (which collects votes) and second ballot unit (the buttons which we press representing parties). This trust is the foundation of democracy of India. I want to show you that the foundation of democracy which is thrusted in this machine is something which I (a simple engineer) have been able to manipulate in 10-15 days. I will prove this in front of the assembly,” he added.
“The control unit is with the presiding officer and the ballot is in the box where the voter goes and press button,” he added.
Bharadwaj undertook a small voting procedure by giving two votes each to every party (AAP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC) and Samajwadi Party (SP)).
He then pressed the secret code and then gave another eight votes, all to the AAP. As per the votes, the maximum votes should have gone to AAP but the results were shocking.
Only two votes went to the AAP while the Bharatiya Janata Party got 11 votes. The Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party got two votes each.
Bharadwaj further said that the secret code is easy to enter as the ballot unit is covered by a cardboard box and therefore only the voter can see inside it.
Bharadwaj also condemned the enquiry report of the Election Commission of India saying that it had no basis.
“I read the entire finding. There is no basis in that finding. It is shameful that it is the enquiry report of our EC.”
He further gave examples of Bhind and Dholpur where EVM were rigged and results were manipulated.
“I read the Election Commission’s site. I read many answers given by them. And we all saw on TV that how in Bhind, infront of journalists, DM, and candidates, any button which was pressed was showing only BJP’s ticket. Thankfully VVPAT was connected with it.”
Bharadwaj, in a challenging way, said that if they are given three hours with the machines where Gujarat elections will take place then the BJP won’t even win in one booth.
With inputs from ANI
Source: Rediff