Patidar leader Hardik Patel on Sunday alleged that 140 software engineers from an Ahmedabad-based company had been hired to hack about 5,000 Electronic Voting Machines, or EVMs, using their source cards. Patel’s allegations come a day before the Gujarat Assembly election results.
He followed up this claim with a tweet in which he alleged that attempts had been made to hack the machines used in tribal and Patel-dominated areas such as Visnagar, Tankara, Radhanpur, Vav, Jetpur and Savli.
“People will laugh off my claims, but if a divine creation such as the human body can be tampered with, an EVM can also be hacked. ATMs can be hacked, why not EVMs?” he asked.
Though he did not say who was behind this, Patel had alleged on Friday that the Bharatiya Janata Party would try and tamper with the machines to win the Gujarat elections.
Ahmedabad Collector Avantika Singh dismissed Patel’s “baseless allegations”, and said the authorities need not issue any clarification. “Even if any clarification is to be issued, it will be issued by the EC [Election Commission],” she added.
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