Norms followed, Election Commission junks TMC charge of ‘BJP tags’ on EVMs

New Delhi, May 25

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The Election Commission on Saturday denied charges levelled by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) that EVMs with “BJP tags” were used at a polling booth in Bankura.

Responding to allegations, the EC said as only the BJP candidate’s representative was present while commissioning of the EVMs and VVPATs at that particular booth, his signature was taken at that time.

Poll panel’s clarification

While EVM commissioning, common address tags are signed by the candidates and their agents present there. Since only the BJP candidate’s representative was present at that time in the hall, his signature was taken during the commissioning of that EVM and VVPAT. Election Commission

Sharing two pictures of EVMs having paper tags with BJP written on those, the TMC said in a post on “X” that “Smt. @MamataOfficial has repeatedly flagged how @BJP4India was trying to rig votes by tampering with EVMs. And today, in Bankura’s Raghunathpur, 5 EVMs were found with BJP tags on them… @ECISVEEP should immediately look into it and take corrective action.

In response to the TMC post, the EC said, “While commissioning, common address tags are signed by the candidates and their agents present there. Since only the BJP candidate’s representative was present at that time in the hall, his signature was taken during commissioning of that EVM and VVPAT.”

“However, the signatures of all agents present at polling booth Nos 56, 58, 60, 61, 62 were obtained. All ECI norms were duly followed when commissioning was done,” it added.