AAP ‘hacks’ EVM in assembly
TAMPERING DEMO Kejriwalled party ‘shows’ how a code could be used to make all votes tally up for just one party
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday claimed to have hacked a prototype of an electronic voting machine (EVM) which it said proved its allegation that the system can be tampered with to favour a particular party.
Kejriwal has been alleging that large scale EVM manipulation helped the BJP win the massive mandate in Uttar Pradesh in the recent assembly polls. He also blamed EVM tampering for the party’s defeat in the recent by-polls and civic elections in Delhi, a charge denied by some of his own party leaders.
He raised the stakes on Tuesday in the assembly, inviting representatives of the TMC, Janata Dal (U), SP and CPI (M) to witness the EVM hacking.
AAP legislator Saurabh Bhardwaj conducted a mock poll in which he cast two votes each to different parties. The final tally, however, showed that some parties did not receive a single votes.
“I was a computer science engineer for 10 years before becoming an MLA. EVMs can be easily hacked by small engineers. Before voting day, candidates are fooled into believing that the machines are fine,” said Bhardwaj.
“You just need to change the motherboard. All it takes is 90 seconds. For successful hacking, all we need is a hacker smarter than the software designer.”
He added there was a secret code which, if entered, would manipulate the voting machine and all votes would go in favour of a particular party.
Besides chief minister Kejriwal, other opposition parties including the Congress had raised doubts over EVMs’ vulnerability to manipulation.
Used for the first time in India in 1982 for a bypoll in Kerala, EVMs are now used for all elections in the country. The EC is also trying out EVM printed slips -- called voter-verified paper audit trail or VVPAT – to eliminate possibilities of manipulating results
BJP MLAs alleged that the “EVM hacking show” in the assembly was a deliberate attempt to divert attention from bribery allegations levelled by former minister Kapil Mishra against Kejriwal.
BJP legislator Vijendra Gupta was thrown out of the assembly by marshals when he tried to raise the issue of alleged corruption in land deals involving Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain.
Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee said the EVM was tampered inside the assembly “probably to add credibility to the act”.
“As it was done before the speaker and several other legislators, it added some authenticity”.