Maharashtra Election Results 2024: Congress MP Karti Chidambaram Defends EVM Fairness Amid Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut's Manipulation Allegations

New Delhi: Congress MP and former Union minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram on Monday countered the claims of some Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders regarding the fairness of voting through the electoral voting machines (EVMs) saying he had “no doubt about its efficacy”.

His statement came on a day when Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut questioned the credibility of the Maharashtra results and demanded that the “results be annulled and fresh elections be conducted with paper ballot.”

Talking to the media in the Parliament premises, the Congress MP said, “I have been participating in elections using EVMs since 2004 and have never had a bad experience. I have no evidence to suggest any kind of manipulation or tampering.”

He, however, qualified his statement regarding whether EVMs were fair under all circumstances, saying, “If others have any doubt about the efficacy of EVMs, it is for them to raise but I have had no no doubt about the robustness of the efficacy of EVMs.

His comments come at a time when the Congress had raised the issue of allegedly malfunctioning EVMs following the recent Haryana Assembly elections.

Earlier, Congress spokesperson Mohan Kumaramanglam had stated on Sunday, “This wasn’t a rigged election” and that “the words EVM should not be uttered when losing just as they are forgotten when we are winning”.

These comments were not in consonance with the claims of Congress's MVA partner the Shiv Sena (UBT). MP Sanjay Raut had stated that his party does not accept this as people’s mandate and had claimed that “something is fishy in election results.” Party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi too had termed the results “unacceptable”.

Raut on Monday further claimed that there were over 450 complaints about EVMs malfunctioning, but no action was taken.