Arvind Kejriwal, Mayawati get EC's answer – 'EVMs cannot be tampered with'

BSP and AAP were decimated in the recent Assembly polls held in UP and Punjab respectively.

New Delhi: Responding to the allegations that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were rigged in the recent round of assembly elections, the Election Commission on Thursday issued a statement denying any such possibility.

“Given effective technical and administrative safeguards, EVMs aren't EVMs aren't tamperable and integrity of the electoral process is preserved,” the EC said.

“However, if any specific allegation with material facts is presented, it will be looked into with all seriousness on administrative sides,” the internationally reputed poll body added.

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had approached the EC alleging the EVM machines were rigged in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh respectively.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, who had alleged large-scale tampering in the EVMs soon after results were announced on March 11, on Wednesday decided to move court on the issue.

BSP was decimated in the recent Assembly polls in UP where it finished a distant third winning 19 seats in the 403-member House while the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) making a debut in Punjab bagged 20 seats in the 117-member Assembly.

Mayawati said the BSP has decided to observe a ‘black day’ every month against the “murder of democracy” by the BJP and charged that the saffron victory in UP smacked of “dishonesty” and “fraud”.

On the other hand, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal alleged that EVM tampering may have led to AAP’s poor showing in Punjab, alleging it could be part of a conspiracy to keep the party out of power in the state. The AAP chief, whose party won 20 seats in the 117-member Assembly with a vote share of 24.9%, claimed that around 20 to 25% of its votes may have been “transferred” to the SAD-BJP coalition.

The BJP responded by saying that there are “some defects” in Mayawati and not in the EVM. Kejriwal faced flak from BJP ally Akali Dal whose leader and union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal advised the AAP chief to go for vipassana, a style of meditation, instead of casting aspersions on the reliability of the voting machines.

Later, the Congress and some other political parties had joined the chorus demanding a probe into the allegations. The grand old party also added that it does not fear an investigation into the Punjab poll results, where it has won a majority after 10 years.

With agency inputs