Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday urged his party workers to remain vigilant after voting ended in Rajasthan and Telangana, claiming electronic voting machines “have mysterious powers in [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s India”.
The Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Telangana were conducted on Friday. Results of the elections – including those of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram – will be declared on Tuesday.
“In MP [Madhya Pradesh], EVMs behaved strangely after polling: Some stole a bus and vanished for two days!” Gandhi tweeted. “Others slipped and were found drinking in a hotel.”
Gandhi was referring to reports that EVMs reached a collection centre in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district 48 hours after voting ended on November 28. The party had alleged that the EVMs were taken to a hotel owned by state Home Minister Bhupendra Singh before being brought to the centre. The Election Commission had on Wednesday sacked the returning officer in the Khurai Assembly constituency, which Singh represents.
In another incident in the state, a power outage had caused closed-circuit television cameras installed in an EVM strongroom to stop functioning for over an hour.
The Congress on Thursday also moved the Chhattisgarh High Court against irregularities in connection with polling in the state Assembly elections held on November 12 and November 20. The party has alleged that unauthorised officials had entered the strongrooms holding EVMs in Dhamtari, and that closed-circuit television cameras were turned off for a few hours in Durg.
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