Advani had told The Sunday Express that “we should revert to ballot papers unless the Election Commission is able to ensure that EVMs are foolproof and every possibility of their malfunctioning is taken care of,” to which Election Commissioner SY Quraishi said that the “poll panel was absolutely satisfied that EVMs couldn’t be manipulated and that a technical committee headed by former IIT-Madras director, PV Indiresan was in place, to ensure this”.

While the EC maintained today that the EVMs were “foolproof”, the political class threw up an array of opinions ranging from calls for a “constructive debate” on the subject to “motives of such apprehensions being raised at this juncture”.

“Advani’s comments are most unfortunate, astonishing... I hope and trust that they do not betray a lack of grace over the loss in the elections,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. His party colleague Manish Tewari’s observations were more nuanced. “While I would agree with (Election Commissioner) Quraishi’s statement, I would also like a wider discussion on the efficacy of the EVMs and whether there could be manipulation at a macro level” he said.

Janata Dal (U) leader Sharad Yadav said “he had received complaints on EVMs’ malfunctioning from PMK leader S Ramadoss and TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu”, and that “the poll panel should convene a meeting of various political parties to allay their apprehensions”.

The CPM too wanted the issue to be considered “very seriously”. “Many questions have already been raised related to EVMs... These are serious issues and if we want to strengthen our democracy then we should consider the matter very seriously,” said CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, adding that “many countries using EVMs had reverted to ballot papers, Germany being the latest example”. Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, however, dismissed such claims.

JD (S) president H D Deve Gowda had a different take and said “EVMs should be abandoned because booth-wise details of voting are easily known in the present system.”

The BSP was “surprised” by “these apprehensions being voiced by a losing party at this juncture”. “It’s being said that the West is getting back to the ballot papers, but they are rarely faced with the problem of invalid votes, something so rampant in a country like ours. The problem of invalid votes is addressed in the system of EVMs. The concerns about EVMs are being raised by a losing party, so I’m hardly surprised,” said BSP treasurer and Rajya Sabha MP Ambeth Rajan.

While the LJP and RJD too voiced apprehensions over the working of EVMs, RSP leader Abani Roy advocated the middle path. “Possibilities of technical glitches in the EVMs must be addressed, but we must persist with the present system,” said Roy.

The Election Commission, which used 11.83 lakh EVMs in 9 lakh polling stations across the country during the general elections, cited endorsements from the Madras High Court, Bombay High Court, Karnataka High Court and Kerala High Court, as upheld by the Supreme Court, to point out that “it had a foolproof system in place”.

“The Commission has also been consulting a group of technical experts comprising Prof PV Indiresan and (IIT professors) Prof DT Sahani and Prof AK Agarwala regularly, on all EVM related technical issues.”

The EC, in its release, said that former Delhi Chief Secretary Omesh Saigal had “only met the Chief Election Commissioner” and that “he had not made any presentation before the poll panel”. Saigal, on the other hand, claimed “he was ready to make a presentation before the poll panel or its technical committee whenever he was asked to” as he had “found that rigging of EVMs was possible and that a programme written by a junior programmer showed that the final results could vary if the pre-programmed code number was keyed into the machine”.