Kejriwal invokes Mahabharata, says EC the 'Dhritarashtra' helping 'Duryodhan' BJP

New Delhi: Ranking up the issue of alleged manipulation in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said alleged the Election Commission has become 'Dhritarashtra' with the only motive to help son 'Duryodhana' (Bharatiya Janata Party) emerge victorious in the elections.

"The EC has become 'Dhritarashtra', who wants his son (Duryodhana) to win by hook or crook. The EC's motive is not to conduct the elections but to ensure the BJP's victory," Kejriwal told the media here.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief said that a few machines used during the bypoll in Rajasthan's Dholpur, may have been tampered with.

"In these 18 EVM machines, the vote was going to the BJP no matter where it was pressed. In Bhind, one such EVM was found during mock drill. Yesterday in Dholpur, 18 such EVM machines were found. It means that their software was changed, the code and programming was changed. When did they change all this?" Kejriwal said while wondering as to why the poll body was not ready to investigate it.

"Even for the Delhi municipal elections, the EVMs are coming from Rajasthan. Why are they coming from Rajasthan? Why the machines from Delhi are cancelled? All the machines from Rajasthan are manipulated and tempered," he added.

The Delhi Chief Minister further said the people of India won't forgive the Election Commission and BJP for the 'game', which they are playing with the Constitution.

Kejriwal had earlier expressed doubts over the security features installed in the machines while demanding that the upcoming civic polls in the capital be conducted using paper ballots.

"It doesn't look like all machines are tampered. Some are being used in a few areas. I wrote to the EC today. We have the experts to study the software, if you don't have them. Give the EVMs to us. We will make the software public," Kejriwal said.

Last week, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had in a veiled attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that baseless observations and allegations were made by a "leader of a political party today in a press conference regarding the use of EVMs" and clarified its position.

"The EVMs comprising the Control Unit (CU) and Ballot Unit (BU) used in any election shall be kept in a strong room after declaration of results and shall not be accessed by anyone till the period of filing of election petition is over. The election petition has to be filed within 45 days.

However, in case of VVPAT machines, the printed paper slips have to be retrieved at the time of counting and sealed in a paper envelope and only these sealed paper slips have to be kept inside the strong room along with the EVMs.

The VVPAT machines are not required by the law to be retained in strong room for the purpose of election petition and are available for use in any other election. However, in the on-going bye-polls only VVPAT machines which were kept in reserve and not used during the actual poll, have been redeployed," the statement said.

"The Commission would like to point out that these allegations are completely baseless and made without verifying the facts. No EVMs have been moved from Uttar Pradesh for the purpose of Bye-polls in Madhya Pradesh. Required number of VVPAT machines was moved from different States for use in Bye-polls as per the existing policy of the ECI," the statement added.