Rebel BJP legislator accuses ministers of hacking EVMs

Mumbai, January 5 

A rebel  BJP MLA in Maharashtra on Saturday alleged some state ministers belonging to the party had got EVMs “hacked” to win the local body polls held recently, a charge rubbished by the BJP.

Anil Gote, who represents Dhule in Maharashtra Assembly and had recently announced his decision to quit the BJP as he was unhappy with the party’s choice of candidates for civic polls, said at a press conference here that he had approached the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay HC on the alleged hacking issue.

Gote questioned as to how wherever BJP minister Girish Mahajan was given responsibility by the party—Dhule, Jamner, Jalgaon—the BJP won exactly the same number of seats as predicted by the minister.  He also questioned the role of two other ministers. He alleged that some leaders in the BJP had managed to deploy people to “hack” EVMs. He also claimed that some of his party workers had got in touch with an “agent of one of these hackers” and had recorded the telephonic conversations. 

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari refuted Gote’s allegations, terming them as a “cooked up story”. — PTI