New Delhi: Two days ahead of the Lok Sabha election results, leaders of around 20 opposition parties met here on Tuesday amid their concerns over the electronic voting machines (EVM) and use of VVPATs.
Among those who attended the meeting were Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, Nationalist Congress Party’s Praful Patel, DMK’s Kanimozhi, Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien, Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Satish Chandra Misra, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Manoj Jha, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitraram Yechury, Communist Party of India leader D. Raja and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal.
While going for the meeting, Yechury said there is no clarity on how the EC will take a decision if there is a mismatch between the EVM and VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail).
“The Supreme Court has ruled that there should be five per cent match between EVM and VVPAT. The question is that if there is a mismatch, what will the Election Commission do,” he said.
Yechury said that in such a case there should be match between the VVPAT and EVM in the whole Assembly segment.
Meets EC officials
Leaders of as many as 22 opposition parties met the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday and demanded verification of VVPAT slips of randomly-selected polling stations before the counting of the votes polled in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election begins on May 23.
They also demanded that if any discrepancy is found during VVPAT verification, 100 per cent counting of the paper slips of VVPATs of all polling stations of that particular Assembly segment should be done and compared with the EVM machine 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,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters here after meeting EC officials. “We are asking the EC to respect the mandate of people. It cannot be manipulated,” Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) N Chandrababu Naidu told reporters.
The opposition parties also raised concerns over the transportation of EVMs ahead of counting of votes and urged the EC to probe the issue. They are seeking transparency and fairness in the counting of votes and respecting the mandate of the people of the country. (Agencies)
