By IANS,
Agartala : The opposition Congress party in Tripura has accused the Left Front of winning the February assembly elections in the state by manipulating the electronic voting machines (EVMs).
“Due to the manipulated EVMs, the result of the election was not the true reflection of the peoples’ mandate,” Samir Ranjan Burman, president of the Tripura Pradesh Congress, said Friday.
“The state’s chief electoral officer, G.S.G. Ayyangar, was the chief architect of the manipulation and the Election Commission failed to ensure a free and fair election,” Burman told journalists.
The Congress has demanded an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Burman hinted that the party may file a petition in the Supreme Court.
“Soon after the polls, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president had constituted a three-member technical committee to check whether the EVMs could be manipulated and confirmed that these electronic machines could be manipulated,” Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman said.
Reacting to the Congress allegations, CPI-M spokesman Gautam Das said: “The Congress failed to win seats in the polls even after taking help from outlawed militants and giving money to the voters. Now they are lying.”
Said Ayyangar: “In elections the Election Commission had made special arrangements in the modified version of the EVMs to record every event and action to prevent intimidation and other malpractices. These records will remain for the next five years.”