Kharagpur (West Bengal): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday demanded a probe into the alleged tampering of EVMs in the recently-concluded Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
“You can’t win elections every time by hijacking EVMs. I didn’t contest but had I done so, I would have counted from one to ten. Those who had contested the elections, should have demanded a probe.
“I think there should be a probe. Even the ones that were used in the polls, they should be subjected to a sample survey,” Banerjee said here at a public rally.
The Trinamool Congress supemo also slammed the central government’s decision to lower the interest rate in small savings scheme by 0.1 percent.
“This is why chit funds flourish. There are no chit funds in our regime. One day CPI-M, Congress and BJP will have to answer for them,” she said.
Soon after the results of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls were declared, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati had alleged that the EVMs were tampered with.
Other opposition parties, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), sought a probe by the Election Commission after an EVM malfunctioned during an official demonstration ahead of the by-elections in Ater and Bandhavgarh assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress had asked the Election Commission urging it to revert to the system of paper ballot if political parties were not convinced about the credibility of the EVMs.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also urged the ECI to investigate the cases of faulty EVMs to ascertain if they were tampered with to favour the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the just-concluded assembly elections in Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Goa.
–IANS