EVM challenge: AAP invites participants for parallel challenge

The party decided to conduct its own ‘hackathon’ after its request of a ‘open hackathon’ was rejected by the Election Commission.

The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday formally launched EVM Challenge by inviting participants to register in the challenge. AAP invited Election Commission, BEL, ECIL and all interested technical experts to participate in it.

On the party website AAP said' AAP believes that the 3rd June EC demonstration is a pure eye-wash which will achieve nothing. To prove its point, AAP will conduct a parallel hackathon/demonstration of its own EVM prototype, under the same conditions as EC has proposed - only visual inspection and press of keys will be allowed. No other hardware or software experiments will be allowed.'

Earlier, AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj tweeted sayoing,'Verified accountNobody participating in EVM challenge of ECI.This vindicates our stand that EVM challenge under current conditions was a farce, an eye wash.'

The party decided to conduct its own 'hackathon' after its request of a 'open hackathon' was rejected by the Election Commission. The party had asked the EC to remove some of the restrictions it had placed in its EVM challenge.

In fact, an AAP delegation, which visited the Election Commission, told the poll panel that it would be "worrying" if the event disallows tampering of EVMs. However, EC refused AAP's demand.

The party will use the same machine used by MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj during his demonstration in the Delhi assembly last month, which the EC had called a 'look-alike' and not an 'ECI-EVM.'

The EC is conducting EVM hackathon due to allegations of EVM rigging by AAP, Congress, BSP and other political parties. Following the five state Assembly elections, opposition parties had alleged that EVMs were rigged to give a favorable result to select political parties.

(With agency inputs)