Assembly Elections 2018: Congress meets EC over 'misuse, manipulation' of EVMs in MP and Chhattisgarh

Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal on Tuesday led a delegation to the Election Commission to register complaints of "intimidation and misuse" by the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) government in the state, as well as "manipulation" of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

After the representation, Nath told reporters that instances of misuse of EVMs have surfaced in Bhopal, Satna, Shajapur and Sagar, with some EVMs being found in hotel rooms. In the complaint, Congress listed four such instances, and demanded that officials involved in the process be suspended and barred from counting.

"Another demand that we raised is that unless the first round of results are declared, the second round should not commence. The authorities who were found guilty should be suspended immediately," said Nath. "We have stated examples before the EC that the EVMs are being transported using private school buses, which don't have a registration numbers. They don't have EVM tracking systems. Nobody knows which EVM goes where," said Sibal.

The Congress also complained to the EC against BJP president Amit Shah for making misleading statements in Telangana, and alleged that the comments might trigger communal violence.

The party also condemned the arrest of Telangana Congress working president Revanth Reddy in the wee hours of Tuesday. Reports stated that the TRS government detained Reddy for stopping a public meeting of state chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in Kodangal.