EC chief assures no EVMs were tampered with in Guj polls

Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti on Monday assured no Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were tampered with as far as the Gujarat Assembly polls are concerned.

The EC chief said the questions raised about the tampering of the voting machines had already been answered, adding the voting was conducted by the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs), which enabled voters to see whom they voted for.

Joti further assured there cannot be any tampering with the EVMs.

"All arrangements have been made in Gujarat by the chief electoral officer of the state in view of the counting," he added.

Patidar leader and Congress ally Hardik Patel had earlier alleged that a company had hired 140 engineers to hack 5,000 EVMs. The Ahmedabad collector, however, rubbished the allegations as "baseless".

Besides Patel, the Congress Party has also made similar allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Saturday, the Supreme Court dismissed Congress' plea seeking directions to the Election Commission to count and cross verify at least 25 per cent of VVPATs with votes cast with the EVMs.

The counting of votes for 182-seat Gujarat Assembly began at 8 am on Monday to elect the new government for the state.

Security personnel have been deployed outside the counting centres to avoid any untoward situation.

The final results are going to be out at 5 pm and will be posted on the Election Commission's website.