Varanasi’s Commissioner Deepak Agarwal accepts that there was a lapse in the protocol in the movement of EVMs.\u00a0 Deepak Agarwal also said that no other political parties were informed of the move.<\/p>\n
Also, dubiously, while initially, they stated that the EVMs were being taken to the Uttar Pradesh College, the story changed over time.<\/p>\n
Their stories were conflicting, first saying taking to UP college, and now the DM says their protocol was wrong and also 3 gates entry rules were violated.<\/p>\n
A reporter from NDTV asks officer Ajay Singh about this move as now, even the Commission of Varanasi has acknowledged a protocol lapse<\/p>\n
He responded that there during the seasons of elections if any EVMs needed to be transported for some reason, all parties and officers need to be informed, which was not done.\u00a0 Firstly, long elaborate guidelines had to be followed. Secondly, if they were to move the EVMs for some reason, they had to inform the polling booth agents who were present.\u00a0 Thirdly, all political parties involved in the elections had to be informed of the same.\u00a0 Fourthly, while moving EVMs, they had to do it with police and security presence.\u00a0 \u00a0it, they did not follow protocol to take a police force presence with them.<\/p>\n
He went on to say that the way that it was conducted, raised a lot of suspicion among the people.<\/p>\n
The reporter agreed that elections are not done for the first time, and all these lapses would naturally raise tensions among the voters.<\/p>\n
A petitioner, Rakesh Kumar from Gaziabad, with Meenakshi Arora, a Supreme Court lawyer has raised a plea before the Supreme Court, three benches that the misconfiguration between the EVM-VVPAT. Lawyer Meenakshi Arora raised the plea that in the five states going for polls, it should be ensured that EVMs are matching with VVPAT during the time of voting and not after (as inevitably, it is never followed up on).<\/p>\n
Lack of connection between EVM and VVPAT promotes cheating, unclarity after citizens press the EVM button, and thus insist on the connection between EVM-VVPAT in all the states going for polling to allow transparency in the voting procedure and curb any cheating and the lawyer is asked to be present in the hearing.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the angry public is demanding that an FIR should be registered against the Election Commission of India and the District Magistrate of the area immediately and they should be put in jail immediately for being part of such an alleged conspiracy.<\/p>\n
In fact, it is viewed that they can take the EVMs in the context of training and then use them for creating new votes and voting slips that they need! Training should have been conducted before the polling, not after the polls.<\/p>\n
Akhilesh Yadav in his statement to the press earlier with regard to the EVM inconsistencies said that the nation (USA) that created the EVM, has now gone back to paper ballots. Something to consider!<\/p>\n
Below is the video where the Varanasi Commissioner admits there was a lapse of the protocol in moving the EVMs at 3 a.m.<\/em><\/p>\n