Now, Lalu backs Kejriwal on EVM issue

Politics makes strange bedfellows. Or so it seems when Lalu Prasad on Wednesday supported Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s charge that EVMs could be tampered with.

“It’s a very serious matter. Kejriwal’s MLA has demonstrated on Tuesday how an EVM can be tampered with by simply feeding a secret code,” said Lalu. He added that the RJD’s national spokesperson Manoj Jha will represent his party at the all-party meeting convened by the Election Commission on this issue on May 12.

AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, a computer engineer, had demonstrated (using a replica of EVM) in Delhi Assembly on Tuesday how an EVM could be ‘rigged’.

Though the Election Commission rejected the demonstration and said that the machine used was “duplicate and extraneous”, the legislator maintained that he had done extensive research on the issue and “there was no machine in the world which cannot be hacked.”

While leaving for Vaishali on Wednesday to attend a private function, Lalu said, “The AAP MLA has shown that EVMs can actually be hacked. This is a very serious matter. And if the issue remains unresolved, it could pose a danger to the Indian democracy.”Lalu, however, remained evasive on his alleged phone conversation with the incarcerated former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin.Breaking his silence on the Supreme Court ruling which reinstated criminal conspiracy charges against him in fodder scam case, Lalu said, “My lawyers are looking into the ruling. They will give an appropriate response.”Lalu, who is facing the charge since 1996, has different lawyers representing him in different courts. While senior lawyer Chitranjan Sinha looks after his fodder scam case in Ranchi and Patna courts, Prabhat Kumar represents him in Jharkhand High Court (which, in 2014, ruled that Lalu cannot be tried twice for the same offence). Senior-most lawyer Ram Jethmalani and Surendra Singh handles his case in the Supreme Court.