Gandhinagar:

Election Commission today rejected the claims of hacking of EVMs in Gujarat by Congress backed PAAS leader Hardik Patel, who has given various ‘strange’ statements during and after Gujarat assembly polls.

Addressing a press conference here a day before the counting for Gujarat assembly polls, Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat B B Swain today said that though he can’t comment on Hardik Patel’s or any other individuals remarks yet he can only say that EVMs were not ‘hackable’. ‘Rest assured that there was no possibility of hacking of the EVMs. These have been used and tested in many earlier polls. Even the allegations about their connecting with blue tooth during polls were also found to be untrue,’ he said.

He also said that the letter in the name of ‘State Election commission’ sent to various collectors and Mamlatdars offices by post and which claims that the EVMs were hackable so the mobile phone towers should remain off on the counting day was a fake one. ‘It was a totally fake one,’ he said.

Notably Hardik who perhaps fearing the possible victory of BJP giving bizarre statements one after the other today tweeted another such one, ‘My point will only cause laughter and no one would ponder over it. If the human body made by lord can under go make over then why the EVMs can’t be tampered with. If the ATMs can be hacked why not the EVMs.’ ( ‘मेरी बातों पर सिर्फ हंसी आएगी लेकिन विचार कोई नहीं करेगा। भगवान के द्वारा बनाए हमारे शरीर में छेड़छाड़ हो सकती है तो मानव के द्वारा बनाई गई इवीएम मशीन में क्यों छेड़छाड़ नहीं हो सकती !! एटीएम हेक हो सकते है तो इवीएम क्यूँ नहीं !!!’)

He went on to claim that attempts to hack the source code of EVMs of various seats including the one of CM Vijay Rupani, Alpesh Thakor,Shanker Chaudhary have been made.

In another tweet today he has written, ‘Attempts of source code hacking of various areas specially Patel and Tribal dominant seats including Visnagar, Patan, Radhanpur, Tankara, Unjha, Vav, Jetpur, Rajkot East, West and South, Lathi-Babra, Chhota Udepur, Santrampur, Savli, Mangrol, Modvahadaf, Nandod, Rajpipla, Davhoi have been made.’

Earlier in a late night tweet yesterday Hardik had claimed that a company in Ahmedabad had planned to hack the source codes of 5000 EVMs with the help of 140 software engineers.’

In another tweet yesterday he had written ‘For BJP defeat in Gujarat would mean its complete downfall. BJP will win Gujarat polls by tampering with EVMs but will loose Himachal Pradesh so that no one raise question (about the results).’

DeshGujarat