Rigging claims: Cong wants ballot paper back

New Delhi, January 22

Moments after the government accused Opposition Congress of sponsoring the London EVM ‘Hackathon’ by a US-based cyber expert who claimed the 2014 Lok Sabha results were rigged, the Congress said it favoured a return to ballot paper and also a probe into the accusations the hacker in London made yesterday.

Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said all Opposition parties had petitioned the President asking for the Election Commission to revert to ballot papers.

“All Opposition parties have been expressing doubts about the EVMs. We all petitioned the President. The matter also went to the EC, which has not taken a decision on it. For the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, we want EVM results in 50 per cent cases to be matched with VVPAT to establish the veracity of outcomes. We understand there is no time left for entire 2019 General Election to be conducted with ballot papers, so matching in half the cases should work as a solution,” Sharma said, adding the Congress had in its AICC political resolution last year said it was for returning to ballot papers.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad however earlier cited the Supreme Court orders on EVMs which said there was no cause to return to ballot papers. Prasad also asked the Congress whether it wanted to return to times when whole polling booths were captured with the power of money and muscle, like what just happened in the Bengal panchayat polls where candidates were not allowed to file nominations and ballot boxes were thrown into rivers.

The Congress distanced itself from the presence of senior MP Kapil Sibal at the Hackathon in London after Law Minister attacked the Opposition party as “conspiring against Indian democracy”. The Congress let Sibal do his own talking and he later said he was invited to the event in a personal capacity.  — TNS