CHANDIGARH: After former union minister M Veerappa Moily, another Congress leader and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has defended the use of electronic voting machine amid the party's allegation of EVM tampering. “If EVMs were fixed then I wouldn't be sitting here. The Akalis would be,” Amrinder said.
Moily had found himself isolated in the Congress over his remark that going back to ballot paper would be a regressive step, with the party distancing itself from what it called his “personal opinion”. At the AICC briefing, senior Congress spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Azad said the entire party is of the view that something is wrong with EVMs and the Election Commission needs to satisfactorily address the issue. “If someone has said something, it is in his personal capacity, let it be very clear on this. It is his personal opinion and not of the Congress,” Azad had said when asked about Moily's remarks.
He said Moily was a signatory to the memorandum handed over to the President and was a part of the delegation seeking a revert to the ballot paper. “Congress and like-minded political parties have reached a conclusion that there was tampering with EVMs in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and UP. We have substantial evidence based on which the 15-16 opposition parties met the EC. We gave substantial proof to EC. It said that our objections were wrong. It said that it would probe it. We have asked (the EC) to see how to rectify the flaws in EVMs (so) that the people should have faith that their vote goes to those they vote for,” Azad had said.
Meanwhile, a hurt Election Commission has given an “open challenge” to people to hack its EVMs. “From first week of May, experts, scientists, technocrats can come for a week or 10 days and try to hack the machines,” an official said.
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