New Delhi: High drama and showmanship pervaded the Delhi assembly’s special session on May 9, as the Aam Aadmi Party staged a live demonstration on rigging an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj took to the floor with a dummy EVM and explained the operating mechanism, before displaying how the device can be ‘hacked’ with a ‘secret code’ so as to manipulate the votes polled in it.
“As voters cast their votes they believe their vote goes to the right party. But the person tampering EVMs, posing as a voter, can use secret codes to decide which party will win,” Bhardwaj said.
Citing experience gleaned from a 10 year career as a software engineer, Bhardwaj said his demonstration was meant to show that “any machine can be rigged or hacked.” He simulated polls by casting random number of votes for various candidates after entering the secret code in the EVM. The results showed votes skewed into the BJP’s favor.
“I have seen again and again around the country, several places whoever one votes for, vote goes to only BJP, due to VVPAT. If elections continue to be done through these EVMs there will be no measure of democracy left. Only one party will rule,” Bhardwaj said after the live demonstration.
Earlier in the day, embattled party chief Arvind Kejriwal had tweeted that the AAP MLA would reveal the truth behind a major conspiracy in the country.
The Election Commission (EC) issued a statement saying the machine used by AAP for the demonstration was only a prototype and not an ECI EVM. The EC has time and again rubbished allegations that EVMs can be programmed to favor any particular party, a charge leveled by various political parties, including the AAP, after the assembly election in five states earlier this year.
Following the staging of this live demo in the Delhi assembly, suspended AAP legislator Kapil Mishra, who has accused Arvind Kejriwal of graft, alleged that the act was only a “diversionary tactic” employed by the party to draw attention away from the real issue.
“Ye kal bolenge janata ko tumhari ungli mein hi gadbad hai, galat button daba deti hai (Next, they (AAP) will tell the people there’s a fault in their finger which causes it to press the wrong button,” Mishra told news agency ANI.
The former Water minister filed three complaints with the CBI over the exchange of Rs 2 crore between senior AAP leader Satyendar Jain and Kejriwal, a Rs 50 crore land deal arranged for the chief minister’s brother-in- law and five AAP leaders allegedly misusing party funds on foreign trips. He’s also threatened to launch a hunger strike if details of foreign visits by five AAP leaders are not made public by the party.
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