Kejriwal meets Election Commission over EVM tampering row

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday met Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi to discuss the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) tampering issue.

"We have been saying that the EVMs were tempered. Are the elections in this nation being conducted fairly? Are people casting their votes or machines itself deciding it?" Kejriwal said addressing media after meeting Election Commission.

He further alleged that the software in the machines was changed, so that when the voters press any button it will only lead to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Calling for tamper-free elections, Kejriwal said that machines have not been checked which raises a big question mark on democracy.

Defying Election Commission's claim that machines cannot be tampered, he said they are being tampered at a large scale.

Earlier this week, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had approached the Election Commission over EVM tampering in Punjab Assembly Elections and alleged that there is clear and irrefutable evidence of manipulation of results at polling booths.

The AAP has appealed to the Election Commission of India that the results of all polling booths where VVPAT had been deployed be cross-checked with the paper trail.

In the letter submitted to the ECI, the AAP stated, "After analysis of booth wise voting pattern, we have reached to a conclusion that there has been large scale rigging through tampering of EVMs. Initial analysis has shown that on several booths, where the Aam Aadmi Party has secured very less number vote, voters in much bigger number than the total number of votes secured by the Aam Aadmi Party have come forward saying they had voted for AAP."

Politicians have openly alleged tampering of EVMs in the recently concluded assembly elections with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Kejriwal leading the charge.