Election Commission Rejects Opposition Demand On VVPATs Ahead Of Counting

The Election Commission on Wednesday rejected the demand of 22 Opposition parties for verification of VVPAT slips before the counting of votes on Thursday.

Leaders of as many as 22 opposition parties met the Election Commission) on Tuesday and demanded verification of VVPAT slips of randomly-selected polling stations before the counting of the votes.

They also demanded that if any discrepancy is found during VVPAT verification, 100 percent counting of the paper slips of VVPATs of all polling stations of that particular Assembly segment should be done and compared with the electronic voting machine (EVM) results.

“We told the EC that the VVPAT machines should be counted first and if there is any discrepancy, then all of them in that segment should be counted. During elections, there were many EVMs which malfunctioned and in many cases, when votes for one political party were cast, it showed votes for some other party, specially the BJP.

“These things we have told the EC. We, in the last three-four years have been complaining about the EVMs in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and even in states,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters after meeting EC officials.

Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot, Abhishek Singhvi of the Congress, TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, Satish Chandra Misra of the BSP, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M), D Raja of the CPI, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, Derek O’Brien of the TMC, Ramgopal Yadav of the SP, Kanimozhi of the DMK, Manoj Jha (RJD), Majeed Memon (NCP), Devinder Rana (NC) were earlier part of an opposition meeting where the VVPAT issue was discussed along with larger strategy of formation of a non-BJP government at the centre.

The leaders then approached the EC to raise the issue of VVPAT.

(With PTI inputs)