EVM hacking: All-party meeting begins as EC seeks to counter AAP's 'demo'

AAP and BSP have been the chief proponents of the idea that EVMs can be, and were, hacked

An all-party meeting with the Election Commission (EC) on the issue of alleged electronic voting machine (EVM) tampering began here on Friday.

Representatives of seven national parties and 48 state parties were invited by the poll panel for the meeting at the Constitution Club, to reassure the parties that EVMs cannot be tampered with and were secure.

A host of opposition parties, chiefly the Arvind Kejirwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party, have alleged that EVMs were tampered with in the February-March five-state Assembly elections and the just concluded Delhi civic bodies polls.

Earlier, during a special session of the Delhi Assembly, AAP legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj had sought to demonstrate the procedure for tampering with an EVM.

The poll panel dismissed his assertion outright, saying that the machine used by Bharadwaj was a "lookalike" of an ECEVM and, therefore, could be used to demonstrate "any magic" or tampering.