Congress plea on EVMs based on lies: Haryana minister

Ambala, Oct 30 (IANS) Haryana’s Transport Minister Anil Vij said on Wednesday that the Congress wants to take the country backwards while the BJP wants to move it forward.

“This is the difference in our way of thinking,” the minister said.

Responding to a question by the media regarding the Election Commission dismissing all Congress’ complaints, he said the Congress’ request to the Election Commission was based on lies, “Which aligns with their nature: they blame EVMs (electronic voting machines) when they lose elections but do not blame EVMs when they win. Now, in Haryana, they are complaining about malfunctioning EVMs in constituencies where they lost. Why don’t they say that EVMs are faulty where they won?”

He mocked Congress and said that the Congress members who won should resign and contest again.

“Thus, the Election Commission has answered each of their complaints. The Election Commission also stated that such baseless claims should not be raised as they disrupt the atmosphere,” he said.

In response to another question about Congress MP Manish Tiwari's comment on 99 per cemt of EVM machines being charged, Vij said, “He’s explaining his engineering knowledge; maybe they (Congress) inspected it during their tenure.”

“There’s a procedure for issuing machines: when the Election Commission distributes it, representatives from all parties are invited and shown the machines. When machines are started at polling stations, polling agents can witness test votes being cast and verify everything, including battery charge. This shows that their (Congress) entire team, from top to bottom, is foolish. Their only complaint is ‘Haaye EVM, Haaye EVM, Haaye EVM.”

He said, “When they (Congress) won in Karnataka, they did not make noise, nor did they when they won in Himachal Pradesh. When the Aam Aadmi Party won in Punjab, no one claimed EVMs were faulty.”

Labour Minister Anil Vij’s intervention enabled private factory workers to secure bonuses and overtime pay.

Over 400 workers from a private factory in Ambala met Vij to discuss long-standing issues with withheld overtime and bonus payments. With the minister’s intervention, efforts began to distribute the pending bonus and overtime pay to these workers.