The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday demanded withdrawal of allegedly tampered EVMs brought from Rajasthan for the upcoming civic polls in the national Capital, scheduled to be held on April 23.
In a letter to State Election Commissioner (SEC) SK Srivastava, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanded withdrawal of the allegedly tampered EVMs and said only Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)-equipped EVMs should be used in the elections.
He also demanded that State and nationally recognised parties should be allowed to examine EVMs to be used in the polls. The AAP national Convener sought to know why the SEC asked for Generation 1 EVMs, which are the “most insecure” with the “least security features”, to conduct the civic polls in the city.
“We are really surprised that you (SEC) did not ask for VVPAT machines...Recent incidents of EVM manipulations from Dholpur show that the BJP has successfully managed to tamper the code/software of EVMs in Rajasthan because the State has a BJP Government and all machines are in their custody,” he alleged in the letter.
“Why are you insisting on conducting the civic polls with the machines from Rajasthan when it is clear that they were tampered. We demand that all these machines should be immediately withdrawn,” he added.
Kejriwal said there were around 15,000 EVMs available in the city which were sufficient to conduct the elections.
“All State and nationally recognised parties should be allowed technical examination of the machines which are being used for the MCD elections. We also demand that the MCD elections should be held only and only with VVPAT machines,” Kejriwal said.
Earlier, in a frontal attack, accusing the EC of being biased towards the BJP, he had said that the EC should cancel all elections and “rather declare BJP the winner.”
He had claimed that the poll body was acting like “Dhritarashtra" to help son “Duryodhana” (BJP) win the MCD elections.
Reminding the EC that the Supreme Court had categorically said that all elections should be held with VVPAT machines, Kejriwal sought to know why the poll panel did not make an attempt to procure the machines.
“You (SEC) will have to walk an extra mile to restore that faith. Else it would be very dangerous for our democracy. I hope you accept our demands as promptly as you have been accepting BJP’s demands so far,” he added.
He said that public faith has been seriously “eroded” in the entire electoral process and the EVMs.