Punjab Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh on Monday said Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be brought in from other states to be used in the 2017 Assembly elections.
VK Singh’s statement comes close on the heels of Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh raising the issue with the Election Commission. Amarinder had earlier claimed that the EVMs could be manipulated by officials under orders from their political bosses.
EVMs in Punjab elections have been brought in from Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir. The Election Commission has also offered political parties the chance to verify the machines themselves if they so wished.
The CEO said that all machines were thoroughly checked by engineers from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) before they are put to use.
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The BJP and SAD coalition, while ridiculing Captain’s claims, said they were ready to fight the polls with any device cleared by the Election Commission.
The Chief Minister refuted allegations leveled by state Congress Chief Captain Amarinder Singh regarding possibility of Electronic Voting Machines being tampered with ahead of the coming Assembly polls. He said there was not even remotest possibility of their tampering by state or even Centre.
Terming Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh’s remarks over “manipulation of voting machines” as ridiculous, state BJP secretary Vineet Joshi on Sunday said the Congress will lose in the upcoming assembly polls regardless.
“While the Akali-BJP coalition has focused on development and is reaching masses with the help of Sangat Darshans, politics is a mere amusement for Captain Amarinder Singh,” Joshi said.
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