New Delhi: While the Aam Admi Party (AAP) leadership appears keen to blame the EVMs for the party's loss in the MCD elections, Delhi minister Kapil Mishra has accepted the “fact” that people did not vote for the party.
Mishra said, “People have not voted for us, it's a fact.”
Accepting that there may be some problems with the party's approach and connect with the people, Mishra said, “The party will have to introspect on the reasons behind the defeat.”
The minister did touch upon the EVM issue but not in the aggressive manner in which his Cabinet colleagues Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai raised the issue, earlier in the day.
Mishra said the issue of EVMs should also be looked into to ensure that they are tamper-proof.
Clearly, Mishra appeared willing to accept that the AAP may have lost popular mandate in Delhi at the moment.
He also revealed that he had personally called up Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari to congratulate him for the victory in the MCD polls.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai and party leader Ashutosh alleged that the EVMs were "bugged and programmed".
Rai said: "This is not a Modi lahar (wave), this is an EVM wave. This is the same wave that they (BJP) used in the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Punjab polls."
"We will do self-assessment after the results are out. But every citizen has to see how they can save the nation and their rights to vote," said Rai.
Stating that democracy in the country is dependent on tampered EVMs, Rai said the BJP wanted to remain in power by hook or by crook.
AAP leader Ashutosh blamed the tampering of EVMs for the party`s defeat.
He pointed to some of his government`s achievements and said the BJP-led municipal corporations had done nothing in the past 10 years.
"Why would a voter choose BJP... there`s not a single achievement that the BJP can point out while it ruled the MCD," Ashutosh said.
"No matter which button one presses, the vote goes in BJP`s favour," Ashutosh alleged.
"This clearly shows that democracy is in danger... EVMs had been tampered with, we have seen many examples till date," he added.
The AAP has alleged tampering of the Electronic Voting Machines and had demanded a paper trail proof of the voting, which was turned down by the courts.
(With IANS inputs)
