Kejriwal alleges EVM tampering during Punjab polls, says AAP votes shifted to SAD-BJP
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday alleged that poll tampering took place during the Punjab elections to ensure that AAP is kept out of the state. "Many said that there is anger against Akalis and AAP is sweeping polls. AAP still got 25 percent votes and SAD-BJP got 31 percent. How is it possible?" Kejriwal told reporters at a press conference in New Delhi. "It is the responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure people believe in the electoral system. If people lose faith in elections, democracy will lose its meaning. If there is a flaw in EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines), elections become meaningless," said the Delhi chief minister. "It is because of EVM tampering that 20 to 25 percent vote share for AAP was transferred to the SAD-BJP alliance," Kejriwal alleged. "Election Commission should count slips of VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail) and match it with figures from EVM results," he said. "People are going to make fun of me for this. There is going to be a hashtag #EVMKaBahana run against me," Kejriwal said. Incidentally, #EVMKaBahana was being flashed on Times Now as Kejriwal was speaking. "Even the Supreme Court said that EVMs can be tampered. There are many countries which have banned the EVMs. Even technologically advanced countries feel EVMs can be tampered with," he said. "Before 2014, BJP itself used to oppose EVMs. Advaniji himself had opposed EVMs," he said, adding that there should be an investigation into the alleged EVM tampering. "The people who tamper EVMs may not have tampered Bihar elections because they were over-confident of winning the elections. This is just my assumption," he said. "They had only one objective: Keep AAP out of Punjab. That's why all this was done to keep AAP out of Punjab. Even Arun Jaitley had given a statement about this objective," said Kejriwal. "Akali Dal's victory would have made it too obvious that EVMs were tampered with," he added. Kejriwal also said that AAP accepted the result of Goa elections and further said that journalists like Prannoy Roy and Shekhar Gupta had said that there was an AAP wave in Majha. These allegations made by Kejriwal come just a few days after he had tweeted after the Punjab poll results, saying that AAP accepted the people's mandate. The party had put all its might and resources in Punjab. Kejriwal had himself addressed over 95 rallies in Punjab over the past few month. — PTI
