EC defends integrity of EVMs in SC, asserts it can’t be manipulated
The Election Commission of India (ECI) defended the integrity of the electronic voting system, asserting that it was not prone to any external interference or manipulations.
A BJP delegation led by senior leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday informed the EC that the party’s IT cell head had “no intention” to undermine the poll panel’s stature after he ‘leaked’ the Karnataka Assembly poll date before the poll panel’s official announcement.
Talking to the media after meeting Election Commission (EC) officials here, Naqvi, who led the party delegation said: “Amit Malviya’s tweet was based on a TV channel’s source. It had no intention to undermine the stature of EC.”
“A Karnataka Congress leader had also tweeted the same thing. We agree that he (Malviya) shouldn’t have tweeted it,” he added.
Advertisement
The meeting took place following major uproar over the revelation of May 12 poll date by Malviya, 15 minutes before the poll panel’s official announcement.
Opposition parties have slammed the ruling BJP government at the Centre following the tweet. Congress’s social media in-charge in Karnataka too put out a tweet about the poll date at the same time—around 15 minutes before the official announcement.
Malviya’s tweet though, had the date of counting wrong and was deleted immediately after the media highlighted it. The head of BJP’s IT cell later credited the information to a television channel.
When asked about the alleged leak of information, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat assured “strict legal and administrative action”.
“Strict legal and administrative action will be taken on the leak of information,” Rawat said.
As the tweet had the date of counting wrong—May 18 instead of May 15– Rawat said it didn’t count as a leak.
“We won’t comment on changing date because of a leak. The decision was just taken. They were wrong about counting date so it’s wrong to say they were prepared beforehand,” he said.
Advertisement
