UP polls: 'Legally untenable' to probe BSP allegations on rigged EVMs, says EC

Rejecting allegations made by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were tampered in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Assembly polls by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday said it would be legally untenable to probe into the said allegations.

In its five-page response, the ECI argued the use of voting machines had helped curb "several electoral malpractices and resulted in the more efficient conduct of elections."

Citing the orders of the Madras, Kerala, Karnataka and Mumbai High Courts, the panel pointed out that the orders, in fact, upheld the use of EVMs in the elections.

"The machine is both mechanically and electronically protected to prevent any tampering/manipulation. The programme (software) used in these machines is burnt into a One Time Programme/Masked chip (Hardware), so that it cannot be altered or tampered with. Further, these machines are not networked either by wire or by wireless to any other machine or system. Therefore, there is no possibility of its data corruption," the response read.

It said that the Commission has put in place an elaborate administrative system of measures and procedural checks aimed at prevention of any possible misuse or procedural lapses.

"These safeguards are implemented transparently with the involvement of political parties, candidates and their representatives at every stage to build their confidence of efficacy and reliability in EVMs," the response said.

BSP supremo Mayawati, earlier today, put the onus of her loss in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on the EVMs, saying the machine accepted votes only in favour of the BJP.

"The shocking result of the assembly elections indicates that the EVMs accepted votes only in favour of the BJP," she said.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said that the incident of manipulation of the EVM machines had been raised earlier also but no one paid attention to it.