EC has no interest in free and fair elections: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind statement has come out, just two days after the Election Commission's gave a clerification on tampering in its response to FAQ's.

New Delhi, April 10: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday blamed the Election Commission for "EVM-tampering fraud" and said the poll panel's only aim was to bring the BJP to power at any cost.

Kejriwal said 18 Electronic Voting Machines had surfaced in Dholpur in Rajasthan which voted only for the Bharatiya Janata Party no matter which button was pressed by the voters.

The Dholpur by-election was held on Sunday. "Eighteen EVMs in one constituency means at least 10 per cent of the total number of machines were tampered with," Kejriwal told the media, adding doubts also arose about the other 90 per cent machines.

"The Election Commission is still not ready to probe the issue of EVM tampering despite all the evidence. This raises suspicion if the tampering is being done on its directions," Kejriwal said.

He also referred to an earlier allegedly tampered EVM in Bhind in Madhya Pradesh. The Aam Aadmi Party leader said the machines were not malfunctioning as claimed by the Election Commission but were actually tampered with.

"If there was some defect, then some machines would have voted for the Congress, some for the AAP and some for the BJP. But why are all defective machines voting only for the BJP?

He asked why elections were being held at all and said the Commission should simply declare the BJP the winner in every election.

The Chief Minister said all the EVMs for the Delhi municipal polls to be held on April 23 were being brought from Rajasthan although a large number of EVMs were available in Delhi.

"All EVMs in Rajasthan are manipulated. That is why they want elections using those machines."

Kejriwal had earlier demanded the use of paper ballot in Delhi's civic polls to ensure transparency - even if the election needed to be postponed because of this.

IANS