Reacting back at the allegations of tampered electronic voting machines (EVMs), brought by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, the Election Commission of India has today stated that EVMs are not tamperable. Further citing the effective technical and administrative safegaurds, the ECI has asserted that the integrity of the electoral process is preserved. Former Advisor to Election Commission, PJ Rao, also commenting on the issues has added that there are several technical securities in the EVMs and they can never be tampered. The ECI has asserted that in case of specific allegation with presented material facts, the charges will be looked into withh seriousness on administrative sides.

Earlier in the day, Mayawati had decided to move court against the alleged tampering of EVMs and observe a ‘black day’ every month against the “murder of democracy” by the BJP. Mayawati charged that the BJP victory in UP polls smacks of ‘dishonesty’ and ‘fraud’.

Mayawati stated that, “Our party has also decided to launch an agitation in Uttar Pradesh and other states to expose this fraud…the party will observe ‘black day’ at all the district headquarters in UP and state headquarters in other states on the 11th of every month, the date on which they murdered democracy, and the first demonstration will be on April 11.”

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Also, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that EVM tampering may have led to AAP’s poor showing in Punjab and said around 20 to 25 per cent of its votes may have been ‘transferred’ to the SAD-BJP coalition. AAP’s poor tally of 20 seats is “beyond understanding” and raises a “big question mark” on the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) as political pundits across the spectrum had “predicted a landslide” for the party, he told a press conference here.

“How did the Akalis get 30 per cent vote share when an AAP sweep was a foregone conclusion? No one said Congress will perform so well and it got a two-third majority. We suspect that 20-25 per cent of AAP votes may have been transferred to SAD-BJP through EVM tampering,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies)