After Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Aam Admi Party (AAP) casting grave doubts on EVMs in the recently held elections, it was the Congress' turn to pick up the issue in the Parliament.
Opposition parties have increased the clamour to conduct future polls through ballot paper despite the Election Commission rebutting charges of tampering of electronic voting machines (EVM) at least on four occasions.
After Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Aam Admi Party (AAP) casting grave doubts on EVMs in the recently held elections, it was the Congress' turn to pick up the issue in the Parliament.
Raising the controversial demonstration of voter verification paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines in Ater constituency of Madhya Pradesh, the Congress along with the BSP and SP forced adjournment in the Upper House on Wednesday.
The VVPAT in question had dispensed slips bearing only BJP's Lotus symbol irrespective of the buttons that were pressed during the demonstration.
As the parliament met after four days on Wednesday, the Congress and Samajwadi Party submitted at least four notices under rule 267 seeking suspension of business to take up the issue.
Demanding to initiate a debate in Zero Hour, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said, "I have enough material to prove that these machines (used in Ater constituency) have been tampered with and these machines have come from Kanpur district where Satyadev Pachouri was the candidate."
Ram Gopal Yadav of SP alleged that the EVMs were deliberately programmed to transfer votes to BJP.
Members of the treasury benches led by Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi vehemently denied the allegations. "This is absolute lie. The opposition is unable to digest the defeat and is thus crying," they said.
The situation became unsavoury when BSP supremo Mayawati and his close aide Satish Chandra Mishra called the ruling party 'Baimaan', leading to strong protests from the treasury benches.
Naqvi retorted calling the aspersions an insult to democracy, the Indian public and the Election Commission.
"They have lost mental balance because of defeat," said Naqvi.
Unfazed by opposition's demand, deputy chairman PJ Kurien refused to permit discussion under Rule 267, leading to pandemonium and adjournment of Upper House.
Spl Officer denies tampering in MP, says previous data was not erased
Bhanwar Lal, special officer deputed by the Election Commission to supervise the by-polls in Ater and Bandhavgarh assembly seats, has rejected the charge of EVM tampering and instead blamed the local officials for not carrying out the mandated procedures before making the controversial demonstration.
"The officials should have erased the data in the VVPAT that had been kept in reserve for the Kanpur's Govindnagar assembly segment during the UP elections," claimed Lal.
Because the data was not erased, the VVPAT reportedly showed the votes getting polled to BJP candidate from Kanpur's Govindnagar.
"The clearing of data of the Kanpur election had not happened. This is called the First Level Check, in which the last data is erased," said Lal denying any tampering of EVMs.
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