A day before the counting of votes for the Gujarat Assembly election, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel expressed apprehension that the EVMs in Gujarat would be hacked to favour the BJP. However, his fears were rejected by the ruling BJP saying the Patidar leader had made a volte face on the issue within a matter of few days.

In a series of tweets, Hardik Patel, who has aligned with the Congress in the Gujarat Assembly election, alleged that preparations have been made by an Ahmedabad-based firm to hack the source code of 5,000 EVMs with the help of 140 software engineers.

He further alleged that there have been attempts to hack the EVMs particularly in the Patel and tribal-dominated constituencies such as Visnagar, Patam, Radhanpur, Unjha, Jetpur, Rajkot, Lathi-Babra, Chhota Udepur, Sant Rampur, Sanwli, Nadod and Dabhoi.

The Patidar leader said, "It would make people laugh but no one will consider what I say. If the human body, which has been created by God, can be fiddled with, why cannot EVMs? If ATMs can be hacked, why not EVMs?"

The Patidar leader, however, went on to allege that the BJP would win Gujarat by hacking EVMs but would deliberately lose Himachal Pradesh to make the results appear as genuine.

However, Hardik Patel's allegations were rubbished by the BJP.

The ruling party's national in charge of information and technology cell, Amit Malviya, retorted by saying that Hardik Patel was making excuses in the face of defeat in Gujarat.

"In his Surat rally on December 3, Hardik Patel said there is no problem with EVMs. But now when the big defeat has become evident, he is singing a different tune. Poor Congress has also latched on to him," Malviya tweeted.

Hardik Patel's fears over hacking of EVMs come on the heels of at least two senior Congress leaders rubbishing the allegations.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said if the EVMs were tampered, he would not have been in power in the state.

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Veerappa Moily has also said raising questions over EVMs shows defeatist mentality.

Interestingly, Hardik Patel's comments came on a day when the Congress swept the local bodies' election in Punjab. These raise serious doubts over the Patidar leader's allegations.

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