Rajya Sabha MP, Sharad Yadav, today said that there is something wrong in the electronic voting machine (EVM)and asked why BJP won 46 per cent in EVM areas in Uttar Pradesh urban local body elections while it won only 15 per cent in ballot paper areas – reiterating the allegations that EVMs could be tampered.
In a tweet today, Yadav has also pressed for ballot papers for the 2019 parliament elections.
“There is something wrong in EVMs otherwise why it has happened in UP Nagar Nigam election that BJP won 15% seats in ballot paper areas and 46% in EVM areas. It has become necessary now that 2019 Parliament election may be conducted through ballot papers,” Yadav tweeted.
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Earlier, BSP supremo Mayawati had challenged the BJP saying the saffron party would lose in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections if ballot papers are used instead of EVMs.
SP leader and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had also echoed the same line. “BJP has only won 15% seats in Ballot paper areas and 46% in EVM areas,” he had said.
The EVM controversy had gained momentum after Mayawati leveled allegations of massive tampering of the machines in UP assembly elections earlier this year. Soon, other political parties also echoed the same line. AAP in Delhi even went ahead to make a demonstration in the state assembly on how EVMs can be hacked. Following this, in June, the Election Commission made an open challenge to political parties to hack EVM machines. However, only two parties- CPI(M) and NCP- had accepted the challenge.
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Doordarshan reported that Chief Elections Commissioner, AK Joti has said VVPAT machines will be used along with EVMs in all polling booths of 182 constituencies in the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections. The Commission also said that if a candidate has any complaint against the EVM machines, she/he can complain about it to the Returning Officer. The Election Commission team led by CEC reviewed poll preparations in Gujarat while on a two-day visit to the state, the report say
