AAP MLA demonstrates EVM hacking in Delhi Assembly

New Delhi, May 9 (IANS) Amid a row over corruption allegations against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Aam Aadmi Party legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday sought to demonstrate in the Delhi Assembly how an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) can be tampered with to rig results.

AAP, which has alleged that EVMs had been tampered with in the assembly elections in Punjab and the civic polls in Delhi, both of which it lost, used the day-long special session of the assembly to demonstrate how the voting machines can be rigged.

The party fielded Bharadwaj, a former minister, who brought a prototype of what looked like an EVM used by the Election Commission and went on to claim how codes embedded inside an EVM can be used to manipulate results. He did not name the BJP but provided enough hints to insinuate that the Bharatiya Janata Party was the beneficiary.

"I will show you how the machines on which the faith of democracy rests can be tampered with. An ordinary engineer like me with just 10-15 days of hard work can tamper with them to ensure that votes go only to one desired party or candidate," he said in the assembly.

Though the debate was being held against the backdrop of bribery allegations levelled by sacked minister Kapil Mishra against Kejriwal, neither Bharadwaj nor any other AAP member spoke on the bribery allegations.

After leader of the opposition Vijender Gupta was marshalled out of the House, the lone BJP MLA present in the House Manjinder Singh Sirsa took serious objection to Bharadwaj's comments that Sirsa would have got elected because of EVM tampering in last month's by-poll to the Rajouri Garden seat.

During the demonstration, Bharadwaj claimed that EVMs can be tampered with even after a mock test.

"Using codes embedded in the EVMs they can be tampered. Votes will go to a candidate in whose favour it has been rigged no matter which button you press," he said.