Congress shoots EVM tampering salvo at TRS

​Hyderabad: All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary and candidate of the party A Sampath Kumar and TPCC chief official spokesperson and candidate from Khairatabad constituency Dasoju Sravan on Thursday alleged that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) tampered with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to win the Assembly election.

They said that the allegation could be proved if the government comes forward to hold an inquiry with the CBI. They said that if the ruling party did not come forward, the people and the Congress would believe that the EVMs have been manipulated.

Addressing the media, along with other two candidates of the party A Dayakar and Pavan Kumar, the Congress leaders said that they would present the proofs to the investigating agency. The Congress leaders said that victory of the TRS was not a victory of people but of EVMs. 

Sampath Kumar said that they have been making the allegations since the polling pattern and the results were different. He said that at the time of polling the voters have come in groups to vote for the Congress. But the result was different after the counting. 

He said that the messages on social media confirm their doubts as the educated raised lots of concerns on the functioning of the Election Commission of India. He made it clear that they have the right to make allegations and the government has the responsibility to prove its sincerity.

Sampath said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, his son KT Rama Rao and daughter K Kavitha must respond to the allegations. He said that KT Rama Rao was not responding to the allegations they made on EVMs tampering. 
The Congress leaders showed a video in which the Chief Minister was seen making comments regarding tampering of EVMs, Sampath said Chandrashekar Rao accepted that it was possible to tamper the EVMs. 

“In a discussion in 2009, KCR said that when a satellite in the space could be controlled through a computer then how is it not possible to tamper a machine within our reach. With doubts on the EVMs, the TRS filed about 750 nominations so that the election had to be held through the ballot papers,” he said. 

Sampath said that the inquiry agency must probe Facebook, Twitter, email and phone messages of the last 90-days with the help of forensic experts. He said that they have the numbers which have been used by the KT Rama Rao and his sister.

He said that KT Rama Rao had taken the help of US company to tamper the EVMs. The company was supplied with the voter list two months ago. The EVMs have been presented to make it possible to send votes of the Congress to the TRS. He said that the KTR should take a lie detector test. 

Dasoju Sravan said that the number of votes polled in a polling booth is differing with those counted at the counting table. He alleged that the EC had been consistently supporting the TRS.  Sravan alleged that the Chief Electoral Officer behaved like a servant of the TRS and officials of the CEO were on the pay rolls of that party. He said that CEO Rajat Kumar just said sorry for the deletion of votes.

He alleged that as many as 20 lakh votes have been deleted and the voters who did not find their names felt as if they were considered dead. He wanted to know whether an officer like Rajat Kumar could be left scot free. 

Giving examples of discrepancies in the number of votes registered in a booth and those shown at the counting table, Sravan said that in booth number 7, the returning officer said that total number of votes polled were 819 whereas the Form 16 given to the polling agent said that 717 votes have been polled. In the same way the numbers were different in booth numbers 11, 19, 78, 87, 94, 124 and 156. 

He alleged that the TRS began harassing the leaders of Congress. He said that ruling party leaders have threatened Congress candidate Kuna Srisailam Goud and others. Expressing deep anguish over the behaviour of the ruling party, Sravan said that they were ready to leave the State if that party wants.