king game EVM Tampering Row: INDIA Bloc Set To Move SC After Maha Election Results
INDIA Bloc set to move SC over EVM tampering in Maha elections Photo: PTI INDIA Bloc set to move SC over EVM tampering in Maha elections Photo: PTI 
Days after the poll debacle in Maharashtraking game, the opposition INDIA bloc is all set to file a petition in the Supreme Court over alleged manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the recent assembly elections.
On Tuesday, the leader of the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) Prashant Jagtap announced the decision to approach the top court against the Election Commission after a meeting between NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader and eminent lawyer Abhishek Singhvi.
Earlier, the INDIA bloc held the manipulation of EVMs in favour of the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition accountable for their poll defeat.
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What was discussed in the meeting?The leaders during the meeting discussed the alliance's legal strategy to challenge the alleged irregularities in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the EVMs.
NCP (SCP) leader Prashant Jagtap reportedly alleged that names of voters were deleted and added in Maharashtra until three days before polling day. "We have data to back our claim," Jagtap said, as per a report by India Today.
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EVM tampering issue: Not the first timeAllegations of poll rigging and EVM tampering are not surfacing for the first time. Similar allegations have been leveled by the INDIA Bloc against the ruling NDA during the Haryana assembly elections as well where the BJP got 48 seats in the 90-member Assembly while the Congress could only bag 37.
The Maharashtra assembly elections ended on a similar note as the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition won 235 seats in the 288-member House while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance bagged 46.
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The ruling NDA retaliated saying that the opposition raised allegations of EVM tampering only when they lost. On a similar note, dismissing a plea seeking restoration of the paper ballot voting system in elections in the country, the Supreme Court recently said allegations of tampering with electronic voting machines (EVM) raked up only when people lose polls.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs are not tampered with. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale while hearing the plea filed by a petitioner.
The Election Commissionking game, however, on Tuesday asserted that no irregularities were found during the mandatory counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips in the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections.
