Now AAP to hold EVM challenge on June 3

New Delhi: Days after Election Commission presented a demonstration against EVM tampering, to counter Aam Aadmi Party’s claims that EVMs can be tampered with; the latter is set to hold a similar EVM challenge on June 3,  just to prove poll pannel’s challenge was “pointless”. The AAP has decided not to contest the commission's challenge after its request for change in terms and conditions was shot down by the panel. AAP legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj, who earlier in the Delhi assembly had demonstrated hacking of an electronic voting machine using a prototype, said the party's challenge will also have the same prototype. He said the whole idea behind the exercise was to demonstrate that the Election Commission challenge, because of its terms and conditions, was a "pointless exercise". "Using Blue Tooth or any other device, the participants will have to prove that the EVMs have been tampered with, but they can't open it," said Bharadwaj, contending that it was not possible to prove tampering without opening the EVM and accessing the mother board. While the EC's challenge is open only to national and state parties which contested assembly polls in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab, Bharadwaj said the AAP's challenge was open to all. The participants will have four hours to demonstrate that the EVMs provided to them have been tampered with. (With agency inputs)