Modi govt not allowing EC to do its job: Sitaram Yechury on EVM tampering

EVMs with paper trail could not be introduced due to lack of funds, alleged Yechury

Asserting that every Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) should have a paper trail, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of not releasing the funds for the Election Commission to do this job.

"For the last three years this BJP government has not released funds for the Election Commission to do the job of having a paper trail attached to every EVM machine. Now under the court directions, I think that is being done. We think every EVM machine should have paper trail," he told ANI here.

Yechury stated that in case there is a dispute, then it's not the machine but the papers that will be recounted.

"Our proposal is that no EVM machine is used without paper trail," he added.

There is no need of reverting to the paper ballot system, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said earlier.

On Sunday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) put forth a challenge before the political parties to tamper the EVM.

Meanwhile, the BJP has asserted that it's time for the political parties to prove the claims made by them earlier by hacking the polling machine or should just apologies.

Earlier Saturday, the poll panel asked the Opposition parties and experts to prove that the EMVs, used in the Assembly elections, can be tampered with.

However, the EC put forth terms and conditions for the parties attempting to tamper the machines.

The EC said that only those parties, national and regional, that took part in the recently concluded Assembly elections can hack the EVMs.

It asked each party to appoint three people to hack the EVMs.

The poll panel said that the EVMs need to be picked from its warehouses in Delhi at parties' own cost.

The EC said that if a party fails to report at the alloted time, without prior intimation or approval, their challenge shall be cancelled.

It said each political party will get to pick at least four EVMs of their choice from any four polling stations out of the five poll-gone states. The EVMs involved in the election petition or those sealed will not be allowed in the hackathon.

The poll panel said that if the EVM becomes non-functional after the tamper attempt or if the tamper result is same as the one put out by the EC or if the challenger violates the rules-set, the challenge will be struck down.