New Delhi: Ahead of the announcement of upcoming Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections schedule, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday rubbished Congress’ EVM tampering charge. Refusing the Haryana verdict, Congress claimed that there were issues with the EVMs used for counting of votes in several constituencies of Haryana.
Asserting that EVMs are “100% fullproof”, the Election Commission’s chief said that the public has answered the questions by participating in voting.
“The public answers questions by participating in the voting. As far as the EVMs are concerned, they are 100 per cent foolproof. If they raise questions today again, we will tell them again,” said Kumar while speaking to ANI. Congress has been raising the bogey of EVM manipulation since the counting was held for Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections last week.
Earlier, Congress submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission containing complaints about the functioning of EVMs on 20 seats in Haryana. Submitting the memorandum, Congress General Secretary in charge of communication Jairam Ramesh said that he hopes that the poll body takes cognizance of the issue and give appropriate instructions.
“On October 9, senior Congress party leaders submitted a memorandum full of complaints to the Election Commission. Taking it forward today, we have given an updated memorandum, highlighting serious and clear irregularities in the election process in 20 assembly constituencies of Haryana. We hope that the Election Commission will take cognizance of this and issue appropriate instructions,” Ramesh posted on X.
“We have sent a list of 20 seats to the Election Commission regarding which our candidates have submitted written and verbal complaints of 99 per cent battery charge. This issue was raised on the day of counting…This is a strange coincidence that the machines which displayed 99 per cent battery charge were the ones on which Congress was mostly made to lose. The machines with 60-70 per cent battery charge are the ones on which Congress won. Why did this happen?” asked senior Congress party leader Pawan Khera.
Congress Links EVMs To Pagers
Ahead of the Election Commission announcement on poll dates for Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Congress leader Rashid Alvi claimed that EVM’s could be manipulated citing the example of Israel hacking pagers of militant outfit Hezbollah. The Election Commission will announce the poll dates for Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
“In Maharashtra, the opposition should put pressure to insist on voting by paper ballot and not EVMs. Otherwise, in Maharashtra, BJP govt and EC can do anything. If Israel can kill people by use of pagers and walkie-talkies, then where does EVM stand? The PM has very good relations with Israel. Israel is an expert in such things. EVM ka bada khel kahin bhi ho sakta hai aur uske liye BJP chunav se pehle yeh sab khel kar leti hai,” Rashid Alvi said.
