EVMs completely safe, can't be tampered with: Haryana chief electoral officer

Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal on Sunday said that EVMs are completely safe and cannot be tampered with. He gave this statement hours after a video of BJP's Assandh candidate Bakshish Singh Virk purportedly making controversial remarks about electronic voting machines surfaced on social media.

Chandigarh (Haryana): Hours after a video of a BJP candidate purportedly making controversial remarks about electronic voting machines surfaced on social media, Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal sought to ally fears of tampering, saying these were completely safe.

"EVMs are completely safe and cannot be tampered with,"said Agarwal in an official release here on Sunday, adding that the EVM system was the "strongest and safest" in the world and every citizen should be proud of it.

In the video, BJP's Assandh candidate Bakshish Singh Virk purportedly says that no matter which button is pressed on the electronic voting machine, the vote would go to the BJP.

Virk, however, had claimed that he never said anything about EVMs, adding that video was fake.

"People should have full faith and must vote without any doubt or fear. Along with EVMs, VVPATs are also being used to bring more transparency in the system," Agarwal said, adding that webcasting would be done at 3,100 critical and vulnerable polling stations in the state.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar too has appealed to people to vote in large numbers during the assembly elections on Monday.

"I appeal to you all that you must participate in the festival of democracy on October 21 and exercise your right to franchise in great numbers so as to pave the way for a strong government," said Khattar in his message to the voters on the eve of assembly polls.