Ready And Waiting, Says AAP After Election Commission's Hackathon Dare

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has dared the Election Commission to give his Aam Aadmi Party access to one of its electronic voting machines or EVMs to prove that it can be "rigged in 90 seconds" after AAP legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj gave a half-hour live demo in the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday. Mr Bharadwaj used a machine that AAP said was a prototype built by IIT alumni and tested by experts. 

"There are secret codes that can be used to decide on the day of voting which candidate can win," alleged Mr Bharadwaj, a former computer science engineer, as he rigged a mock poll on the machine and also said, "only the motherboard needs to be changed and that can be done in 90 seconds."

"He showed how easy it is to hack EVMs and it is being done on a massive scale. It is dangerous for the democracy and the country, and people should raise their voice against it," said Mr Kejriwal. He alleges that voting machines have been manipulated to help the BJP post massive wins in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and Delhi civic elections recently, which saw AAP decimated just two years after it swept assembly elections.  

"Give us access to the EVMs that will be used in the Gujarat elections (later this year) for only three hours...I challenge the BJP will not win a single booth then," Mr Bharadwaj said. 

AAP has challenged critics to prove that the machine it used today(Tuesday) "has even one per cent difference," a claim instantly rubbished by sources in the Election Commission. They said any one can assemble a prototype and challenged AAP to rig an actual EVM at a hackathon it plans to prove that its vote machines cannot be manipulated. The party said it accepted the challenge and sought a date. 

Mr Kejriwal had invited leaders of other parties like the Left, Trinamool Congress and Janata Dal United to watch the demonstration from the Delhi Assembly's visitors' gallery. 

Also in the house was sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra, whose allegations of corruption against Mr Kejriwal have plunged AAP into its latest crisis. He scoffed at the EVM demo saying, "Now they will tell the people that there is something wrong with your fingers that they press the wrong buttons to vote for other parties." 

Mr Mishra has, among other things, alleged that he saw Mr Kejriwal take Rs. 2 crore from another minister, Satyendar Jain, at his home last Friday and filed complaints with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) this morning.  

Except for a tweet to say the "Truth will prevail," Mr Kejriwal has been silent on Mr Mishra's allegations. The BJP and the Congress have demanded his resignation and held protests in the capital.  
AAP says Mr Mishra is making "wild and baseless allegations" because he was sacked as minister for non-performance. 

(With inputs from PTI)