AAP welcomes High Court directive to seal EVMS used in South Delhi ward

Citing a Delhi court's direction to the State Election Commission to keep the EVMS used in a south Delhi ward in April 23 MCD polls intact and the Uttarakhand High Court's order for the seizure of EVMS used in six constituencies, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday stated that the judiciary has left our hopes in saving the democracy alive.

AAP'S ex-delhi convener Dilip Pandey while addressing a press conference here welcomed the court's decision to seal Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) used in a south Delhi ward, saying it would be wrong to have an "ostrich approach" when suspicions are being raised against the EVMS.

A Delhi court had on Monday directed the EC to keep the EVMS used in a south Delhi intact and in a sealed condition on a plea challenging the victory of a BJP candidate by two votes.

The court also sought response from the EC by May 19 on the plea filed by Pinky Tyagi of AAP who had lost to her BJP rival Anita Tanwar. While Tyagi had bagged 8,413 votes, Tanwar received 8,415.

"We are happy that the court has taken cognisance of our demand," Pandey said.

He claimed that there were discrepancies in the documents that recorded votes of ward S70 in South MCD.

The AAP leadership has alleged "rigging" of voting machines after its poor show in the Punjab Assembly election and the MCD polls.

The party also welcomed Uttarakhand's High Court decision to admit six more petitions alleging tampering of EVMS in different constituencies as it sent notices to the state election commission and winners of these seats among others, in the recent Assembly polls. Justice Sarvesh Kumar Gupta passed the order to seal the EVMS while hearing the petition filed in context of its tampering.

The six constituencies are Mussoorie, Rajpur, Raipur, Ranipur, Haridwar Rural and Pratappur. All the concerned parties have been given time of six weeks to respond.

On April 27, the Uttarakhand High Court issued notices to the Central Election Commission (EC), the State Election Commission and Bharatiya Janata Party Vikasnagar MLA M.S. Chauhan.

The action was taken upon a plea filed by Congress Vikasnagar runner-up candidate Navprabhat on alleged tampering of EVMS.

The high court asked the authorities to preserve the EVMS and sought a response on the same within six weeks. Chauhan had defeated the Congress candidate Navprabhat with over 6,000 votes in the elections held in February this year.

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat had hinted at possible tampering of EVMS to tweak the poll outcome.

The EVMS are under scanner after the opposition parties have alleged that the BJP had tampered the machines to ensure favourable results.