Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AK Joti on Monday assured that there can be no EVM tampering during the Gujarat election counting.
"I assure you that there can be no tampering with the EVMs," said the Chief Election Commissioner addressing the reporters.
"All arrangements have been made in Gujarat by Chief Electoral officer of the state, at all places in counting halls for the state assembly elections," he said.
Questions being raised about EVMs have already been answered by us in the media. VVPATs were there in every polling stations in Gujarat, which enabled voters to see whom they voted for, so issues being raised aren't right. I assure that EVMS cannot be tampered with, he added.
The Gujarat unit of the Congress party has moved the Supreme Court over its allegation of rigging of EVMs and VVPATs. The top court is slated to take up the matter for hearing.
The Gujarat unit of the Congress party had raised concerns over allegations of EVM tampering but the Election Commission had rejected the charges.
There were complaints of Bluetooth devices being connected to EVMs. Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia had complained that three EVMs were seen connected to Bluetooth devices and he sent the complaint to the ECI along with screenshots backing his complaint.
However, The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a plea by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee seeking direction to the Election Commission to count votes through paper trail attached to the EVMs in 20 percent of the polling booths in Gujarat.
Patidar leader Hardik Patel on Sunday claimed that a group of software engineers was being hired to hack into the machines.
BJP has hired 140 software engineers to hack over 5,000 EVM machines during the counting of votes. BJP will try to hack the source code of EVMs to manipulate the result, he alleged.
An average 68.41% polling was recorded in the two-phase Gujarat elections, a dip of 2.91% as compared to the 2012 polls. While the BJP is seeking a sixth straight term in office, the Congress is aiming to stage a comeback in power after being in the opposition for over two decades.
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