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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on 8 May indicated that he would answer the graft allegations levelled against him by Kapil Mishra, who was suspended from the Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday in a special session of the Delhi Assembly.
However, the party instead staged a "live demonstration" of alleged EVM manipulation in the Delhi Assembly. AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed that anyone knowing a "secret code" can tamper with the EVMs and the code can be fed into a machine while casting vote. The Election Commission has time and again rubbished allegations that EVMs can be programmed to favour any particular party.
Former Delhi Chief Secy Omesh Saigal, a long-time critic of EVMs, weighs in on the EVM tampering debate.
The Election Commission has scheduled an All Political Parties' meeting on 12th May over EVM hacking and other Electoral issues.
Delhi Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution appealing the President and the Election Commission to hold future elections in the city through paper trail equipped-EVMs.
Speaking to the media, Arvind Kejriwal claimed that given the chance AAP will show the EC how easy it is to hack the poll panel’s EVM.
After the Election Commission rubbished EVM tampering claims, the AAP party on Tuesday accepted the poll panel’s challenge and asked it for a date to prove its charges at it’s hackathon, reports NDTV.
Earlier, reports claimed that the EC had challenged the party to ‘rig an actual EVM at it’s hackathon in the 3rd week of May.’
I-T has begun the prosecution process against the AAP over charges of submitting false donation figures submitted to the Election Commission. It has issued a show cause notice to the party and asked it to appear before it with a reply by 16 May, reports CNN-News18.
Earlier in day, the BJP had approached the EC and urged it to derecognise the AAP for gross discrepancies in the figures of donations furnished by it in its affidavits, party website and what it has declared to the poll body.
Slamming AAP’s EVM tampering demonstration, the Election Commission on Tuesday said that the machine used in the Delhi Assembly is not an official EVM machine and hence tampering with it does not prove anything.
It further said that it will conduct an EVM hackathon in the third week of May, reports CNN-News18.
President of the Delhi Unit of BJP, Manoj Tiwari said that the AAP party is diverting attention from their inefficiency and crimes with the EVM tampering issue.
He also urged the EC to derecognise the AAP for the gross discrepancies in the figures of donations furnished by it in its affidavits, party website and what it has declared to the poll body.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, sacked Water Minister of Delhi Kapil Mishra slammed his party’s claims of EVM tampering. Taking a dig at party leader Arvind Kejriwal, he said:
The attack comes a day after Mishra was suspended from the party’s primary membership after he raised graft allegations against party supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi’s Minister Satyendar Jain.
Responding to AAP's EVM tampering expose, BJP leader RP Singh claimed today’s demonstration is nothing but a diversionary tactic employed by AAP to take attention away from the corruption allegations against Arvind Kejriwal and Satyendra Jain.
Raising questions over the manner in which the AAP chose to demonstrate tampering of the EVM machines, RP Singh said:
In a live demonstration inside the Delhi Assembly, the Aam Aadmi Party claimed to have exposed how electronic voting machines can be tampered with. The demonstration was conducted by party MLA from Greater Kailash, Saurabh Bhardwaj who claimed that in his capacity as an engineer, he had extensively worked in this area and was aware of how the machines can be fiddled with.
AAP rests its claim on the premise that all the votes can swing in favour of one candidate if fed a set of secret codes.The party MLA dared the BJP to give him access to the EVMs in Gujarat for ‘3 hours’ to prove the rigging.
BJP MLA Vijender Gupta, who was expelled from the assembly, staged a dharna outside the assembly and said that he was raising the issue of corruption in the House, but was thrown out. “It seems AAP govt doesn't believe in democracy,” he said.
Aam Aadmi Party's Alka Lamba raised EVM tampering issue in the Delhi Assembly.
"AAP leaders went to the Election Commission on EVM issue but we did not get any answers from any authority," Lamba said.
Scientists were not given a machine when AAP wanted to demonstrate how EVM can be tampered, she added.
"In 2010, three scientists demostrrated how EVMs can be tampered," AAP MLA Naresh Yadav said.
BJP MLA Vijender Gupta escorted out by marshals after speaker asks him to allow AAP MLA Alka Lamba to speak.
The special session of Delhi assembly began with a condolence message for the martyred jawans in Kashmir and Sukma. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and other MLAs were present at the session.
The speaker disallows BJP's adjournment notice.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari addressed a press conferrence and talked about AAP giving false information to the Income Tax Department.
"All entries done by the party are fudged and that is why the are not able to give proper details to the I-T department. We must ask why Kejriwal should continue after all these revelations. We are going to the Election Commission at 4 pm today (Tuesday)," Tiwari said.
Delhi BJP Youth Wing members started a protest outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's house on Tuesday. Water cannons were used to disperse the protesting BJP workers.
Arvind Kejriwal, in a tweet, promised to expose a ‘huge conspiracy’ in Delhi assembly today.
Sacked AAP leader Kapil Mishra said intensified his attack and reached the CBI office to file a case against Kejriwal. He said that he will submit the proof to the CBI.
He said that AAP leaders have gone on a huge number of foreign trips. Mishra said that he would go on a hunger strike if the AAP leaders don't make the source of their foreign trip public.
As the Opposition kept asking for Kejriwal's resignation, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday asserted that Kejriwal was a fraud and would soon go to spend a long time in jail.
“Kejriwal is a fraud. He is a ‘420’. So, I think Kejriwal is making all these statements, because he has nothing to say in his defence. He is caught red handed. There are so many cases against him and is also facing defamation cases in Delhi courts,” Swamy told.
Ousted AAP leader Kapil Mishra briefed the reporters on Tuesday and read out a letter he wrote to Kejriwal.
"I ask for forgiveness and blessings from Kejriwal, but I will not quit this fight against corruption," he said.
"At today's assembly session, there will be slogans against me but am ready to face all this," Mishra added.
He also challenged Kejriwal to resign from his seat and contest an election against him. This is the open letter that Mishra later tweeted out.
Capping the day of dramatic developments, the AAP's high-powered Political Affairs Committee (PAC) chaired by Kejriwal on Monday night suspended Mishra from the party's primary membership.
Both Jain and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia hit back at Mishra, saying he had "lost his mental balance" and levelling "baseless allegations".
"PAC is going on, even the embers in the funeral pyre of someone, have not gone cold, and allegation is being made in his name. Has the humanity died? Such baseless charge. Get some evidence, (sic)" Sisodia tweeted in Hindi.
Mishra in a series of tweets also targeted Kejriwal and Jain.
“Bahumat ka khel kheliye, kal mujhe khub galiya dilwana, lekin jaanch ka samna karna hi hoga” (Play the game of majority, get me reviled tomorrow, but must face probe)," Mishra tweeted hours after the suspension.
“Aaj tak jo Arvind Kejriwal ji karte aaye wo mayn kar raha hun aur jo Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Kapil Sibal karte the wo Arvind Kejriwal kar rahe hayn.” (Till now, whatever Kejriwal has been doing, I am doing and whatever Gadkari, Jaitley, Sibal have been doing, is being done by Kejriwal).
Later in the night, he listed out the FIRs he intended to file against Kejriwal and Jain.
Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday sought the Lt Governor’s sanction for initiating prosecution against Kejriwal for allegedly favouring a private company during his short-lived government in 2014.
“However, despite several oral reminders, the sanction was neither given nor denied,” the letter says.
“Hence I write this letter to urge you to consider the application and grant me a sanction to prosecute Kejriwal and Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act,” Swamy said in the letter.
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Published: 09 May 2017,08:59 AM IST