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Gujarat Assembly elections 2017: Criticism of EVMs due to fear of defeat, says Nitish Kumar

The Patidar community accounts for around 12 percent of Gujarat's population.

Gujarat Assembly elections 2017: Criticism of EVMs due to fear of defeat, says Nitish Kumar Pic courtesy: @NitishKumar

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Sunday that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) have helped to make elections "transparent and impartial".

He added that those criticising them were doing so out of the fear of defeat.

"Some may criticize the EVMs out of fear of defeat, but the EVMs have made elections transparent and impartial. Now, nobody can deprive anybody of the right to cast votes," Nitish, who has predicted a comfortable majority for the BJP in Gujarat, tweeted in Hindi.

Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel has accused that 140 engineers were hired by a company to hack 5000 EVMs.

"A company in Ahmedabad has prepared to hack the source code of 5000 EVMs through 140 engineers," he had alleged in a tweet on Saturday night.

He had also questioned Supreme Court`s decision to reject Congress` plea, seeking cross-verification of Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trails with votes cast with EVM and had asked why they were used in the Gujarat elections.

"Why are VVPATs used in the first place? It is used for smooth counting of votes wherever there is a fault. I do not understand Supreme Court`s stand on the issue," the PAAS convener had said.

The apex court has dismissed Congress` plea seeking directions to the Election Commission (EC) to count and cross verify at least 25 percent of VVPAT with votes cast with EVM.

On December 15, the apex court had said that it found no merit in Congress` plea and asked that the Gujarat Congress could approach it through filing a writ petition for electoral reforms.

It had further maintained that electoral process in a democracy was of utmost importance and the SC cannot interfere only to allay apprehension of a party.

The voting for the two-phase Gujarat Assembly election ended on Thursday and counting of votes will be held on December 18.

(With PTI and ANI inputs)

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