The verification of two electronic voting machines (EVMs) used during Lok Sabha elections in Panipat, as mandated by the Election Commission of India (ECI), could not take place on Monday as the district administration refused to accept three requests kept before them by Congress candidate from Karnal Lok Sabha seat Divyanshu Budhiraja.
Panipat deputy commissioner (DC) Virender Dahiya said that they were following the ECI guidelines and Budhiraja refused to go ahead with the process.
Budhiraja, who is also the state president of Youth Congress, had lost to former CM and BJP candidate Manohar Lal Khattar with a margin of 2,32,577 votes in the results announced in June.
On June 20, the ECI said that he demanded verification of EVMs for four booths: two in Karnal and two in Panipat along with his Faridabad counterpart Mahender Pratap Singh to verify the burnt memory/microcontrollers of EVMs in their constituencies.
The EC had accepted their applications, as per the provisions and the verification was scheduled to take place at Panipat on Monday and in Karnal on Wednesday.
After coming out of the Panipat district election office, Budhiraja said that it was for the first time in the history of elections using EVMs that the verification was taking place, following the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.
{{/usCountry}}After coming out of the Panipat district election office, Budhiraja said that it was for the first time in the history of elections using EVMs that the verification was taking place, following the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress leader said, “I kept forward three requests before them -- to reset the date and time of the poll date (May 25), load party symbols instead of alpha, beta or gamma through the symbol-loading machine and issue a result slip through the control unit. After all the requests were turned down, it proves that there is something fishy in the EVMs and BJP won the elections fraudulently.”
He said that a letter has also been written to the administration to secure the machines as he will be moving to court.
Meanwhile, Dahiya said, “We followed the ECI guidelines and showed the conditions to him, before going ahead with the process. He kept forward three requests that could not be accepted as we have to adhere to the ECI directions. We have informed the commission about this.”