Mumbai, Sep 23 (IANS): The Congress Tuesday demanded that servicing of electronic voting machines (EVM), to be used in the Oct 15 Maharashtra assembly elections, must be completed before the names of candidates are finalized.

AICC Secretary and former Mumbai MP Sanjay Nirupam also sought to know which private company would be entrusted with the task of servicing the EVMs.

"These EVMs must be serviced prior to declaration of candidates for various constituencies since there is a possibility of tampering with the machines or installing a chip which can favour a particular candidate," Nirupam said in a letter to Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Gadre.

He also asked the CEO to specify whether the Voters Variable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) last month, is being introduced in these polls and at how many polling centres.

The VVPAT-enabled EVMs give the voters a slip specifying details of their voting and whether it has been registered in favour of their chosen candidate or not.

As per Election Commission's recent decision, the VVPAT will be gradually implemented in EVMs to ensure more transparency in the polling process.

Nirupam pointed out that scientists around the world have proved how the EVMs can be tampered with by changing the chips and even via satellite.

Around 8.26 crore voters shall exercise their franchise in voting for Maharashtra's 288 assembly seats and Beed Lok Sabha seat Oct 15 at 90,403 polling stations.