The Congress party has filed a writ petition in the Chhattisgarh High Court seeking directions to the Election Commission (EC) to maintain adequate security in the strongrooms housing the EVMs used in last month’s Assembly Polls in the state.
The party has also demanded that VVPAT paper slips used in EVMs during the elections also be counted. VVPAT is a printer system attached to EVMs that allows voters to verify whether their votes have been cast as intended.
The petition was filed by Chhattisgarh Congress general secretary Girish Dewangan. He filed it claiming there are complaints of EVM tampering in the state, his lawyer Satish Chandra Verma said. The High Court will hear the matter on the 10th of December, a day before the declaration of results.
Late in November, the Congress party had protested strongly with the Chief Electoral Officer alleging EVM tampering. Massive protests had erupted outside a strong room where EVMs were kept before the counting on December 11.
Not just in Chhattisgarh, the party has alleged EVM tampering even in Madhya Pradesh. Senior Congress leaders had started complaining about EVMs merely hours after voting began. In Chhattisgarh, a Congress worker was also reported to have died of cold while guarding the strong room where the EVMs were kept.
It has become fairly routine for opposition parties to claim EVM tampering after losing elections. On 11th March 2017, as the BJP alliance swept the Uttar Pradesh polls, Mayawati was the first politician who had come out and blamed the EVMs for BJP’s victory. Soon, other political parties too started raking up the EVM issue and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal took it to the next level after spreading an outright lie about the machines that were equipped with the VVPAT system.
