Onus on EC to prove EVMs not tampered: Pranab Mukherjee

Lucknow/New Delhi: Barely two days before the Lok Sabha vote count, a political row erupted on Tuesday over reports of alleged tampering of EVMs and a concerned former President Pranab Mukherjee also stepped in to say that the onus was on the Election Commission to put all speculation around these voting machines to rest.

Wading into the controversy, Mr Mukherjee, in a rare intervention after demitting office in 2017, said there could be no room for speculation that challenge the very basis of Indian democracy.

He expressed concern over the alleged tampering of voters’ verdict, saying the onus of ensuring institutional integrity lies with the EC, which should put all speculation to rest. “I am concerned at reports of alleged tampering of voters' verdict. The safety and security of EVMs which are in the custody of ECI is the responsibility of the Commission,” Mukherjee, a former Congress stalwart, said in a statement posted on his Twitter handle.

As political parties directed their leaders, candidates and workers to remain extra vigilant in all districts where EVMs have been stored, Mukherjee said people’s mandate is sacrosanct and has to be above any iota of reasonable doubt. “The onus of ensuring institutional integrity in this case lies with the Election Commission of India. They must do so and put all speculation to rest,” he said. Mukherjee on Monday had lauded the EC for conducting the polls “perfectly”.

The BJP asked the Opposition parties to accept their defeat with grace if people vote Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to power again. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took a swipe at the opposition, saying EVMs were fine when its leaders like Mamata Banerjee, N. Chandrababu Naidu, Amarinder Singh and Arvind Kejriwal win elections and come to power but they turn unreliable when “it appears that Modi will come back to power”.