Patidar leader Hardik Patel yesterday reiterated his doubts over the reliability of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), claiming they can be hacked and which was why the margin between the winning and losing candidates in the Gujarat Assembly elections was less in some constituencies.
Patel congratulated the BJP on its victory but said he would continue his agitation for reservation for the Patidars, on the issues of farmers, including loan waivers and youth unemployment.
“There has been tampering of EVMs in Surat, Rajkot and Ahmedabad, hence the gap is very less wherever tampering happened,” Patel told reporters here.
He insisted “EVMs are hackable”.
“The EVMs from which the candidates were winning with 300 votes, after recounting the winning candidate lost by a margin of over 6,000 votes,” the PAAS leader claimed. “It means there is something wrong in it,” he said. “If the ATMs can be hacked then why not the EVMs?” he asked.
He claimed that the BJP had won due to its “dirty tricks”. “They won using dirty tricks, by using money power in the state,” he alleged.
Patel pointed out that in most developed countries they still use ballot boxes. “Look at Japan, Israel, Germany, they still use ballot papers despite having advanced technology,” he said.
Patel claimed that the results have been made to look like a “close contest” between the Congress and BJP so that people should not complain about rigging of EVMs.
Patel said he accepts whatever mandate the people of the state have given the BJP.
“I accept the mandate given by the people, but it is not as though the people of Gujarat were not aware. We have awakened a lot of people in the state and a lot more needs to be done,” he said.