Bharuch DC dismisses allegations of EVM tampering

Bharuch District Collector Sandeep Sangle on Saturday dismissed the allegations of EVM tampering in the first phase of the Gujarat assembly elections, saying there was no basis to such allegations.

Speaking about a polling station, Sangle told ANI, "Few voters in polling booth 4 said their votes are going to some other candidate, but the polling officer asked them to do a test vote and told that if the complaint is found to be false, action will be taken against them. Those voters left without tests, so there's no truth behind such reports."

The District Collector also addressed the talks doing the rounds about Bluetooth and Wi-Fi being connected to EVMs.

"An EVM's make is such that it cannot be connected to a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and be tampered with. We have attended to all such complaints with the help of technical staff," he said.

As the voting for the first phase of Gujarat assembly polls took-off this morning, complaints of malfunctioning EVMs and them being connected to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi began cropping up in certain polling stations.

Acting upon such complaints, the EC even visited a polling booth in Thakkar Plot, Porbandar for inspection, and EVM engineer S Anand told media, "The name that you give to your Bluetooth device will be shown when it is paired to another device."

Addressing the issue of malfunctioning EVMs, Bhavnagar's Deputy Electoral Officer, Yogesh Thakkar told ANI that no such issues were reported.

"Some EVMs were replaced due to errors. EVMs were updated with VVPATs, which allows people to verify their vote for 7 seconds," he added.

The voting for the first phase ended at 5:00 pm today, while the second phase will be held on December 14.