Change of EVMs led to debacle, alleges Cong Nalwa candidate

Congress candidate Anil Maan has alleged that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were changed, which led to his defeat in the Nalwa Assembly segment.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress Bhawan today, Maan, who lost the election to BJP’s Randhir Panihar by 12,144 votes, said despite the fact that he got a lot of support from public of the Nalwa constituency, the election result was different.

Maan alleged that out of 181 EVMs in the Nalwa constituency, 60 were replaced because battery of these machines was showing 99 per cent charge left during counting of the votes. He said the voting took place on October 5 and the counting was done on October 8. He said despite using EVMs on October 5 for the whole day when voting was held the machines showed 99 per cent battery life after a gap of three days, which means October 8, when the counting of the votes was held. He said EVMs showing 99 per cent battery life remaining after a gap of three days raised suspicion that these machines were tampered with.

“The BJP got an overwhelming number of votes,” Maan said, adding that he had submitted a complaint to the Hisar Deputy Commissioner about the EVMs at booth No. 16.

Maan said the “vote scam” could come to light if the administration and the Election Commission conducted an impartial investigation of the EVMs.

“There is also doubt that the BJP will not allow investigation of the complaint,” Maan said. He alleged that a sabotage by some Congress leaders harmed the party in the Nalwa segment. Maan said he would submit details of the sabotage to the party high command and demand investigation into it.

Maan said whatever the circumstances, he would continue to work for the interests of the people of the Nalwa Assembly constituency and would be available 24 hours to solve their problems. Maan said he would fight for justice until the “vote scam” was fairly investigated.