Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday tweeted a video clip of a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA declaring that the votes will be cast in favour of the ruling party irrespective of which button is pressed on the Electronic Voting Machine.

The MLA, identified as Bakshish Singh Virk, represents Assandh constituency in the Haryana Assembly.

“The most honest man in the BJP,” Gandhi said in a tweet with the video. His comments came as voting was underway in Haryana Assembly elections.

In the 39-seconds video, Virk is heard saying that he would get to know who the people voted for, as both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar were “very intelligent”.

He also claimed that EVMs were manipulated, NDTV reported. “You may vote for whoever you want, your vote will go to the kamal [lotus, BJP’s poll symbol] only,” he told the audience. “Press any button, the vote will go to BJP. We have fixed a purja [part] in the EVM machines.”

On Sunday, the Election Commission issued a notice to Virk for his comments, and also appointed a special observer to the constituency to take “corrective action”, PTI reported. “After the video circulated on social media, the Election Commission took cognisance and issued a show cause notice to Virk,” Haryana Joint Chief Electoral Officer Inder Jeet told the news agency.

Virk, however, claimed that it was fake video and alleged conspiracy by his rivals to defame him and the BJP.

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