National: During the announcement of election dates for Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar clarified that EVMs cannot be hacked as they are not connected like pagers that were recently used for bomb blasts in the Middle East. he stated that the difference is that EVMs are not connected like pagers. The clarification from the EC came as Congress recently alleged discrepancies in the electronic voting machines during the counting of votes for the Haryana Assembly elections.

The Election Commission further clarified that the battery of an EVM was like that of a calculator and dismissed claims that the machines could be tampered with like pagers. The Congress had alleged that varying EVM battery levels across different polling stations in Haryana might have impacted the poll results.

"EVMs have a single-use battery like a calculator battery and not a mobile battery," Rajiv Kumar said. 

He further added that the EVMs had three-layered security, including the batteries and the first-level checking of EVMs begins 5–6 months before polling takes place. "An EVM is commissioned 5–6 days before voting takes place. A new battery is inserted that day," Rajiv Kumar said.

Recently, the Congress candidates from 20 assembly constituencies, in their written complaints to the Election Commission (EC), have alleged that the batteries in some of the EVMs were charged at 99 per cent during counting on October 8. The complaints follow the Congress' shock defeat in the Haryana Assembly elections after the party failed to win a simple majority even after 10 years of the BJP rule in the state.

The Congress has said that the assembly polls results were "unexpected" and have alleged discrepancies in the EVMs in some seats.