Gopal Rai leads AAP protest outside EC demanding use of VVPAT machines in polls

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) launched a 'Save Democracy' movement by protesting outside the office of the Election Commission on Thursday against the alleged manipulation and tampering of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) that were used during the recently concluded assembly elections and the MCD polls.

Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai, along with AAP MLAs including Alka Lamba and Som Dutt, went to meet officials at the EC headquarters in central Delhi to put forward their demands. The AAP has demanded that voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines be used in all future elections, including the Gujarat Assembly polls. It also plans to "request the EC that votes registered in EVMs and paper trails of 25% randomly chosen booths be tallied." 

Several AAP volunteers stood outside the EC office and shouted slogans like 'Save Democracy' and 'Vote Chori Band Karo'. Many party workers also gathered at the Patel Chowk metro station to protest against the alleged irregularities in the working of EVMs. They claimed that the police had cordoned off all roads that led to the poll panel's office. However, protesters were asked to disperse after Rai, along with Lamba and Dutt, met with the EC officials.

The party has consistently blamed the tampering of EVMs for the loss in the elections. Rai said that the AAP would participate in the poll panel's all-party meet scheduled to be held on May 12. Based on the outcome of the meeting, the AAP will decide the next course of action. Rai also requested the EC officials to announce the date of the EVM hackathon in the all-party meeting on Friday.

Kapil Mishra submits more proof to ACB

Meanwhile, suspended AAP minister Kapil Mishra arrived at the office of the Anti-Corruption Bureau to submit more evidence in connection with the water tanker scam in which Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is an accused.

Mishra was attacked on Wednesday allegedly by an AAP worker named Ankit Bhardwaj. He wrote a letter to Kejriwal claiming that attempts were being made to portray the attacker as a BJP worker.

Another revelation by AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj

AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj addressed the media on Thursday to reveal the "truth" behind the recently concluded assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab at the party office in Delhi at 1 pm on Thursday.

"After demonetisation all the elections were won by BJP. There was no explanation about the technical fault in EVM. Our technical team expert can show EC that EVM machines were tampered," Bhardwaj said. 

The MLA had on May 9 given a live demonstration in the Delhi Assembly on how EVMs could be rigged to favour a particular political party despite the EC's clarifications that the EVMs are "tamper-proof". The party used a "replica" of an EVM to "conclusively" prove that EVMs could be rigged withing "90 seconds" by changing the motherboard.

"We created our own EVMs," says AAP

The AAP said that the replica EVM used in the Delhi Assembly for the live demonstration was put together by its own team of engineers a day after the EC raised questions as to how the party caught hold of an EVM as hacking an EVM that belongs to the poll panel is a criminal offence. However, the poll panel then cleared that the machine used by the party in the Delhi Assembly was a prototype of an actual EVM.

"The Commission in its response said we used a dummy and not an actual machine in Tuesday's demonstration. We request the EC to arrange a hackathon. We will show how its own machines can be rigged," Rai had said in response to EC's charge made after the demonstration. The AAP had carried out the demonstration inside the Assembly to avoid legal consequences. Sources within AAP told Hindustan Times that they were aware of the consequences of hacking a real EVM.