Reliability of EVMs doubtful: PPA

Our correspondent

Itanagar, June 3: Couple of days after the Congress had reacted to Chief Minister Pema Khandu's claim of BJP winning all the 60-seats in the 2019 Assembly elections, the People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) on Sunday linked the Chief Minister's claim with 'faulty' electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the wake of its alleged malfunctioning in the recently held by-polls in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

While claiming that it got to know during its visit to Yupia that around 20 out of 300 EVMs with the district electoral officer (DEO) office have been rejected because of glitch, PPA president Kahfa Bengia, while questioning the reliability of EVMs, said: "Not only Khandu, some BJP ministers from other States are also making similar claims."

"At a time when the whole nation is dissatisfied with the BJP-led NDA government over its unfulfilled promises like Rs 15 lakh to every Indian's bank account, 2 crore jobs per year, smart cities, etc., the practice of making such tall claims by BJP ministers is a worrying trend and it shows that there must be some strong reasons for making such claims by the BJP," Bengia said.

"There have been numerous instances when the opposition parties have raised question on the robustness and reliability of EVMs. And when Pema Khandu making such baseless statement that a failed government like the BJP will win all the 60 seats in Arunachal State Assembly election, one can only wonder if he has made some arrangements to tamper with the EVMs," the PPA president added.