People who raise questions on EVMs should show how they can be hacked: TMC trashes Congress claims

Trinamool Congress MP and general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has said those who raise doubts about EVMs must explain with a demo how they can be hacked.

"The people who raise questions on EVM, if they have anything, they should go and show a demo to the Election Commission. If work is done properly at the time of EVM randomisation and people properly work at the booths during mock polls and counting, I don't think there is any substance in this allegation," he said speaking to reporters.

"If still someone feels that EVMs can be hacked, then they should meet the Election Commission and show how EVMs can be hacked... Nothing can be done by just making random statements...," Abhishek said, who is considered the Number 2 in Trinamool after party chief Mamata Banerjee.

Union Minister Satish Chandra Dubey has snubbed the claim stating the Trinamool leader has understood the truth, though late.

"Two elections happened recently -- in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. The party that won in Jammu and Kashmir is part of the INDIA alliance, and no questions were raised regarding EVMs then. In Jharkhand, the INDIA alliance won, and there were no allegations. An alliance cannot sustain itself for long based on a lie. Abhishek Banerjee may have realised this late, but at least he has understood the truth now," the BJP leader was quoted as saying by NDTV.

The Congress and several other Opposition parties raised questions about EVMs following the results of the Haryana and Maharashtra polls.

Hitting back, the BJP cited the results of Jharkhand polls and said that the Opposition raises the EVM issue only when it loses elections.

However, some Congress allies have trashed the offensive against EVMs.

National Conference leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said one must be "consistent" in questioning the voting method.

"When you get a hundred plus members of Parliament using the same EVMs, and you celebrate that as sort of a victory for your party, you can't then a few months later turn around and say... we don't like these EVMs because now the election results aren't going the way we would like them to," Abdullah said.

"If you have problems with the EVMs, then you should be consistent in those problems," he said, adding that parties should not contest polls if they do not believe in the voting method.

Citing his example of losing in the Lok Sabha election and scoring a big win in the Assembly polls months later, he said, "One day voters choose you, the next day they don't. I never blamed the machines."