After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) staged a "live demonstration" of alleged Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) manipulation in the Delhi Assembly, the Congress Party on Wednesday said if there was still a doubt on the manner in which the EVMs could be tampered with, it must be looked by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Talking to ANI, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said it was an obligation of the Election Commission to remove any doubts on the sanctity and independence of electoral process in the country.
"If even one person raises doubt about the fairness of the electoral process, there is an obligation on the Election Commission to redress that grievance," he said.
"We have seen in recent times in Madhya Pradesh as to how the EVMs were tampered with. Wherever one voted, it went to the BJP. Same thing happened in Dholpur, Rajasthan. So, if there is a doubt on the manner in which the EVMs can be tampered with, it must be looked at whether the claim comes from the AAP or the Congress or anyone else. And free and fair elections, which are intrinsic to our democracy must be ensured," he added.
Earlier, coming down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the EVM tampering row, the AAP staged a "live demonstration" of alleged EVM manipulation in the Delhi Assembly.
During the special day-long session of the Delhi Assembly, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj got a machine similar to the EVMs and gave a demo about the same.
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He said the entire game was about a secret code, which once entered into the machine transfers all the votes to that one party which is supposed to win.
Bharadwaj undertook a small voting procedure by giving two votes each to every party (AAP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC) and Samajwadi Party (SP)).
He then pressed the secret code and then gave another eight votes, all to AAP. As per the votes, the maximum votes should have gone to the AAP, but the results said a different story.
Bharadwaj further said that the secret code was easy to enter as the ballot unit was covered by a cardboard box and therefore, only the voter can see inside it.
Bharadwaj also condemned the enquiry report of the Election Commission, saying that it had no basis.