Ganesh Kendale
NEW DELHI: Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday rejected Congress’s claims of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the Haryana assembly elections.
Speaking to news agency ANI responded to questions being raised by opposition parties over EVMs and said, “the public answers the questions by participating in the voting. As far as the EVMs are concerned, they are 100% foolproof.”
CEC’s response comes on the day the Election Commission will announce the poll dates for Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections.
Congress has refused to accept Haryana verdict, claiming there were serious complaints about the integrity of the counting process and functioning of EVMs in several constituencies.
Alleging a “conspiracy”, Congress blamed the EVM batteries, saying the count from machines with the fully charged ones had Congress in the lead, while those with “60%-70%” charge appeared to have been manipulated to favour BJP. Congress spokespersons Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera also alleged that the EC website delayed showing data when Congress appeared to gain lead.
Rejecting the charge, EC said it “unequivocally rejects” the attempt to “surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated, malafide narratives”. In its reply to a letter from Ramesh, it said nothing was on record to substantiate “your ill-founded allegation” of slow uploading of trends by EC.
Despite the exit polls suggesting a clear mandate in favour of the Congress, the party could win only 37 seats in the 90-member Haryana assembly, while the BJP secured 48 seats to stake claim on government formation in the state for the third successive time.
