Vijayawada: Telugu Desam awaits EC’s response on Hariprasad Vemuru

Vijayawada: The Telugu Desam appears to have stuck to its guns about retaining the state government’s technical advisor Hariprasad Vemuru in its talks with the Election Commission of India regarding the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines (EVMs).

The EC had refused to allow Mr Vemuru to be present at the talks scheduled for Monday because of a case pending against him. The TD wrote to EC stating that Mr Vemuru was a whistleblower, and listed his strong credentials. A TD team was supposed to meet the EC’s technical team on Monday, but a response from the EC to the letter is still awaited.

The TD’s Rajya Sabha member and president of its legal cell, Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, had written to the EC on Sunday stating that the party objected to the ECI’s approach towards Mr Vemuru, who had a criminal case slapped on him, alleging that he had stolen an EVM in 2010.

Mr Kumar had said that Mr Vemuru is the first Indian to be honoured with the EFF Pioneer Award in 2010 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (US).

As a security researcher in India, he had revealed security flaws in India’s paperless electronic voting machines (EVMs) and in recognition of his pioneering contributions, Mr Vemuru was conferred the award.

He has also co-published a research paper on the vulnerability of Indian EVMs. Two former chief election commissioners, Dr S.Y. Qureshi and V.S. Sampath had reacted positively to Mr Vemuru’s presentations.

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