‘Time to stop blaming EVM’: Karti Chidambaram to Congress doubters

The Congress appears the weak link in the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan alliance as leads for Bihar polls trickle in, putting the grand old party in a not so comfortable position, or numbers. Amid questions raised in some quarters about the reliability of Electronic Voting Machines, or the EVMs, Congress leader Karti Chidambaram said emphatically “it’s time to stop blaming the EVM”.

“Whatever be the outcome of any election, it’s time to stop blaming the EVM. In my experience, the EVM system is robust, accurate and dependable,” said Karti Chidambaram, son of senior leader P Chidambaram.

“There have been doubters of the EVM from across political political parties, particularly when the results don’t go in their favour. Till now no has demonstrated scientifically their claims,” added the leader.

After the ruling NDA took an initial lead from the grand alliance -Which consists of RJD, Congress and the three Left parties, in poll trends for Bihar, Congress leader Udit Raj raised questions on the reliability of EVMs, asking why they cannot be hacked if satellites can be controlled from the earth.

He also asked if Donald Trump could have lost in the US elections had EVMs been used.

“If the direction of satellites to Mars and Moon can be controlled from the earth, then why can’t EVM be hacked,” Udit Raj said in a tweet in Hindi.

“If elections were held in America with EVMs, could Trump have lost,” he asked.

Dalit leader Udit Raj is the Congress party’s national spokesperson. He was a former BJP MP from Delhi.

However, the Left parties, allies in the mahagathbandhan, are leading in 18 of the 29 seats they contested in the polls after the first few rounds of counting of votes, according to the Election Commission (EC) website.

In an alliance with the RJD, the three Left parties were given 29 seats by Tejashwi Yadav, despite reluctance from the members of the parties. While the CPI(M) was given four seats, the CPI got six and the CPI-ML (Liberation) 19.

Counting of votes in Bihar will take extra time due to 63 per cent more EVMs than the 2015 Bihar polls as Covid-19 protocol needed additional polling booths, said ECI officials. The counting will go till late in the night, said the top poll body.

In Madhya Pradesh, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh too alleged that EVMs are “not tamper-proof”.

“EVMs are not tamper-proof, and selective tampering is done. There are seats that we would have not lost in any circumstance but we did by thousands of votes. We’ll hold a meeting tomorrow and analyse the results,” Digvijaya Singh was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP in Madhya Pradesh is leading in 20 of the 28 Assembly constituencies for which by-elections were held while the Congress is ahead in seven seats, as per the trends on counting day, PTI reported.