Chandigarh, Jan 30: With Punjab and Uttarakhand witnessing the Assembly elections today (Jan 30), the election process was hampered when election authorities had to replace 11 electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Mansa district in Punjab. This was following complaints filed that an unidentified man had tried to tamper with the EVMs.

The complaint on the EVM tampering was made by party workers from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the People's Party of Punjab (PPP) to the Election Commission (EC). They had alleged that an unidentified person tried to break the seals of the EVMs in the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) office on Sunday.

Following the complaint, the Mansa Deputy Commissioner ordered that the 11 EVMs be replaced with fresh ones. The voting process that kick started from 8 am on Monday was not impacted. The person who is alleged to have tampered with the EVMs managed to escape.

Security agencies are perplexed on how this man was able to get into the area where the EVMs were kept in spite of heavy security in place at the SDM office. The complainants stated that the person was trying to press the button of the ruling Akali Dal on the EVMs.

PPP president Manpreet Singh Badal has been quoted as saying, “We complained to the EC and the EVMs have been replaced. We are satisfied with the action.”

OneIndia News