Karnataka Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri said in the Assembly that he would seek an explanation from the Election Commission (EC) about the 19 lakh “missing” EVMs.
Kageri was responding to Congress MLA HK Patil’s statement on the “missing” EVMs during a debate on electoral reforms in the Assembly.
“You will be shocked to know about missing EVMs. Reports as given to RTI activists by BEL that 9,64,270 EVMs and by Electronics Corporation of India that 9,29,992 EVMs are missing and not returned. Almost 19 lakh EVMs are missing and nobody knows where they have gone! Can these EVMs be operated again? How are you keeping quiet?” Patil said.
Patil also said that in 2014, BEL claimed to have supplied 62,183 EVMs, but the EC had not received even a single EVM.
Former speaker K R Ramesh Kumar called it “a big fraud” and urged the Speaker to summon EC officials to the Assembly to explain this.
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“If there’s any variation between the order placed and supply made, do you require any further proof? EC, being an autonomous body, has lost its credibility,” Kumar said.
“Using my jurisdiction of power and the authority at my command, I will make an attempt to have the EC give answers and solutions to your questions and doubts,” Kageri said.
“The EC should invite not just political parties, but also researchers and scientists to test the EVMs,” Patil said.
Former IT minister Priyank Kharge said that when in office, he had offered to host an ethical hackathon in Bengaluru to test the EVMs. “I wrote to the EC twice, saying the government will host the hackathon. They wrote back with the EVM manual,” he said.