HC orders seizure of EVMs used in Uttarakhand elections

Nainital: The Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission to hand over the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used for voting in the Vikasnagar constituency during the recently concluded state assembly elections.

The HC took the decision to seize the machines after hearing a petition filed by a Congress party leader, who lost the elections from the particular seat.

Senior Congressman Nav Prabhat has challenged the election of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Munna Singh Chauhan from Vikasnagar, located near capital city of Dehradun, claiming that the EVMs were rigged.

Ever since BJP rose to power in Uttarakhand and its neighbouring state Uttar Pradesh, the opposition parties have been claiming that the EVMs used in the elections were tempered. The EC, however, has strongly claimed that the machines cannot be rigged.

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The court has asked the Election Commission and the state poll panel to submit their replies in next six weeks to the notices issued on Thursday. It has also asked the EC not to use the EVMs used in Vikasnagar for any other elections till it comes to a decision. It is worth mentioning that out of a total of about 11,000 EVMs used in Uttarakhand Assembly polls, 139 were used in Vikasnagar.

BJP has registered an emphatic victory in the hill state sweeping 57 seats out of 70 seat Assembly. Congress could only manage to get 11 seats. The BJP candidate had defeated Nav Prabhat by a margin of over 6,000 votes.