Ahmedabad: Life comes a full circle, and rather quickly so where politics is concerned. The state BJP, after their dismal performance at the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, accused the Congress of tampering with EVMs. It is now the turn of the Congress to say the same about the saffron party!

After minute analysis of voting data on Monday and Tuesday, senior functionaries of the Congress have concluded that mass-scale tampering with EVMs has been carried out by the ruling BJP, in collusion with the government officers on election duty.

"A complaint by a candidate in Isanpur revealed that the total number of votes cast in a particular booth, as declared at the time of the results, was higher than that declared by the booth agent on Sunday. This shows tampering with EVMs," a Congress leader said.

The average voting in almost every ward has been shown to be 42-44%, while Congress functionaries believe not more than 35-37% genuine votes have been cast. "According to data revealed by the collectorate at regular intervals, only about 30% voting had taken place till 4 pm on Sunday. It is difficult for hundreds of people to cast their votes in just the last one hour," a source said.

"We calculated that even if voting moved at breakneck speed, it would take a voter at least 30 seconds to cast his vote for a panel. Which means, not more than 120 people can vote in an hour at a given booth. Final data, however, reveals several hundred votes cast in the last hour," he added.

A leader in Saurashtra insisted that the issue be taken up and that removal of EVMs be sought for taluka panchayat elections. "We are getting many complaints from party workers," a leader in Rajkot said.

The senior party leadership, however, is not expected to take this issue up with the election commission. "We have received several complaints, but have nothing concrete yet. We want to gather foolproof evidence and then seek removal of EVMs. As for the panchayat polls, we are not planning to seek removal of EVMs," a senior Congress leader said, requesting anonymity.