As the Opposition on Monday got fresh ammunition to further its contention that the EVMs can be tampered  after a cyber expert said so, the BJP as well as the Election Commission (EC) came out with a strong counter. The BJP accused the Congress of being behind the move while the EC backed the EVMs and said it will even explore legal action against the expert.

Leading "EVM can be hacked charge", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Opposition will take up with Election Commission the claims made by expert Syed Suja. She said every vote was valuable and the issue should be taken up."Our great democracy must be protected. Every vote of yours is precious. All Oppn parties discussed the #EVM issue after the #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade rally. We are working closely together and decided on Jan 19 itself to consistently take up the matter with EC. Yes, every vote counts," she tweeted.

The cyber expert has demonstrated how EVMs can allegedly be hacked at an event in London organised by the Indian Journalists' Association (Europe).

Coming out hard, Union Minister MA Naqvi said the Congress has a lot of freelancers, who sometimes reach even Pakistan to take help for removing Modi. "They are making a hacking horror show of their possible defeat in the upcoming elections," he said.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal didn't go by accident, Naqvi maintained adding he was sent by the Congress, its president Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. "Jin logon ko bhi desh aur desh ki loktantrik vyavastha ko badnaam karne ki supari di gayi hai,us supari ko lekar yaha se koi dakiya to jaana chahiye na. Two wo dakiya bheja gaya hai," he asserted.

For its part, the Election Commission issued a statement saying, "It has come to our notice that an event claiming to demonstrate EVMs used by ECI can be tampered with, has been organised in London. ECI has been wary of becoming a party to this motivated slugfest and stands by empirical facts about foolproof nature of ECI EVMs."

"It is being separately examined as to what legal action can and should be taken in the matter," it said even as it went to point out that the EVMs are manufactured in Bharat Electronics Ltd. & Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. under very strict supervisory and security conditions.

"There are rigorous Standard Operating Procedures observed under supervision of a Committee of technical experts constituted in 2010," it pointed out.