Ballari: Reacting to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s comfortable win both in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed on Monday that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) could have been tampered with to help the saffron party, which had won despite the “strong anti-incumbency wave” against it.
Despite anti-incumbency and people’s anger against demonetisation and introduction of GST, the BJP has managed to win comfortably in Gujarat. This makes me suspicious that the EVMs may have been manipulated to suit that party
— CM Siddaramaiah
Speaking to reporters in Hagaribommanahalli before addressing the “Sadhana Sambrama” rally here, he asserted that the people of Gujarat had accepted the leadership of newly coronated All India Congress Committee president Rahul Gandhi as the Congress had increased its vote share and tally of seats these elections.
Charging the BJP with winning in Gujarat only because of manipulation of the EVMs,he said, “Despite the anti-incumbency wave and the people’s anger against demonetisation and introduction of GST, the BJP has managed to form a government with a comfortable majority in Gujarat. This makes me suspicious that the EVMs may have been manipulated to suit the party.”
Mr Siddaramaiah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to have also played the "emotional card" with Gujarati voters, pleading with them to vote for him as he too was a Gujarati.
“Being the Prime Minister, Modi still went to Gujarat over 50 times to campaign for the assembly elections,” he noted, claiming that the quitting of senior Congress leader, Shankar Singh Vaghela from the party ahead of the elections had impacted its poll prospects.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has played every cheap trick to win this election forgetting the position he holds,” the Chief Minister charged, adding that the results of the two assembly elections would not have any impact on the Congress in Karnataka when it goes to polls in 2018.
