New Delhi: The Congress party has demanded decisive action after EVMs were transported in the car of BJP MLA Krishnendu Paul from a voting station to the storage centre in Assam.
The Congress also claimed that the BJP was using "illegal" means as it realized it was losing Assam.
Also read: Assam sees nearly 75 pc polling in second phase of assembly election
Assam Congress leader and All India Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev termed the incident shocking. "How can an EVM be transferred from a polling station to the strong room in a candidate's car?" she wondered. "I don't think this has ever happened in the history of Assam. Clearly, this is a conspiracy, a criminal act. We demand that this candidate be disqualified and action be taken against every officer involved," she said.
"It is clear that the BJP is losing Assam and it is using illegal means to win... this is completely unacceptable. We demand immediate action as per law," Sushmita said.
The video was tweeted out by an Assam-based journalist Atanu Bhuyan, in which he also mentioned that the situation in Patharkandi was tense following the incident.
Watch: Officials suspended for taking EVM in BJP MLA's car
The Election Commission of India has suspended four election officials in connection with the case. An FIR is likely to be lodged and repolling may be held in the concerned booth.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet, "Every time there is an election video of private vehicles caught transporting EVM’s - unsurprisingly they have the following things in common - the vehicles usually belong to BJP candidates or their associates, the videos are taken as one-off incidents and dismissed as aberrations, the BJP uses its media machinery to accuse those who exposed the videos as sore losers (sic)."
While Gandhi demanded the Election Commission to take decisive action, she also alleged that "nothing" was being done in such matters. She said, "The fact is that too many such incidents are being reported and nothing is being done about them. The EC needs to start acting decisively on these complaints and a serious re-evaluation of the use of EVM’s needs to be carried out by all national parties (sic)."
