Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee on Monday said there was nothing “substantial” in the allegations of Electronic Voting Machine manipulation that Opposition leaders have been raising, reported The Indian Express.

His statement came days after National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said the Congress cannot allege that Electronic Voting Machines have been manipulated only when election results are not in its favour.

The Trinamool Congress, National Conference and the Congress are constituents of the INDIA bloc at the national level.

Banerjee and Abdullah’s remarks came against the backdrop of the Opposition parties announcing that they would move the Supreme Court over the alleged manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections.

On Monday, Banerjee told reporters that his “personal opinion was that those raising questions on EVMs should show a demo of its discrepancies to the Election Commission”, reported The Indian Express.

“I have been conducting elections on the ground for a long time,” said the Trinamool Congress MP. “If someone works well during EVM randomisation and the booth workers check EVMs during mock polls or review form 17C, which is used to check ballot units or control units, during counting of votes, I do not think there is anything substantial in these allegations [of EVM manipulation].”

Banerjee, who is also the general secretary of Trinamool Congress, said that if those alleging Electronic Voting Machine manipulation are not allowed to demonstrate how the machine can be hacked, they should start a movement.

“Only making two-three statements regarding a matter does not mean anything,” he was quoted as saying.

On November 23, the Mahayuti alliance – comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena group led by Eknath Shinde and the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Ajit Pawar – won 230 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi – comprising the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar and the Congress – managed to win only 46 seats.

Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and Thackeray Sena are also part of the INDIA bloc.

In an interview to PTI on Friday, Abdullah had said: “When you get a hundred plus members of Parliament using the same EVMs [Electronic Voting Machines], and you celebrate that as sort of a victory for your party, you can’t then a few months later turn around and say...we don’t like these EVMs because now the election results aren’t going the way we would like them to.”

Following this, the Congress claimed that it had not made any allegations regarding the Electronic Voting Machine.

“It’s the Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) that have spoken against Electronic Voting Machines,” Congress leader Manickam Tagore said in a social media post on Monday.

Tagore asked Abdullah, who was sworn in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on October 16, to check facts.

The Congress leader said that “the Congress Working Committee resolution clearly addresses the Election Commission of India”.

The interview came two months after the National Conference-Congress alliance won the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Days before his remarks, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on December 6 indicated that she was willing to lead the INDIA bloc if given the opportunity. A day later, Sharad Pawar also backed Banerjee’s claim.