BHUBANESWAR: The safe keeping of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) continued to be the major concern of the Congress with the party demanding that only para-military forces should guard the strongrooms in which these have been kept after the elections.
A delegation of Congress leaders comprising All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Ramchandra Khuntia and Assembly candidates of Jajpur district met the chief electoral officer (CEO) Alka Panda today and apprised her of the large-scale irregularities in the electoral process.
The delegation alleged about selective and inadequate deployment of armed forces at sensitive polling booths, inefficient and partisan approach of the Jajpur district administration, booth-capturing and rigging by ruling party workers in connivance with poll officials.
Addressing a media conference here, Khuntia said that keys of the strongrooms should not be handed over to any officials till the counting day. The local police and State Government’s functionaries should get access to the building where strongrooms are located accompanied by representatives of the candidates.
Besides, booth and machine number wise votes finally polled should be intimated without further delay to all candidates as the presiding officers did not give required forms containing such information to Congress polling agents in many booths, he said.
The CEO, Khuntia said, assured that she would look into these matters and take all necessary steps for safeguarding of the EVMs.
Addressing a separate news conference, Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) vice-president Sibananda Ray alleged that there had been large-scale rigging by ruling party workers in several booths across the State. While repolling has been ordered in only a few booths, there should be proper investigation into rigging allegations in other booths. In seven booths of Dharmasala Assembly constituency there was 100 per cent polling, he said and raised doubts about the fairness of the election process.
Utkal Keshari Routray, OPCC general secretary, demanded that EVMs kept in the strongrooms of the Naxalite-affected districts should be immediately shifted to safer places. The EVMs are not safe at places like Koraput, Nayagarh and G Udaygiri which were attacked by the Naxalites in the past, he said.