Oppn to approach SC again for 50% VVPAT verification

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday rallied opposition leaders over alleged malfunctioning of EVMs in Andhra Pradesh assembly elections.

A day after a face-off with the Election Commission over the efficacy of Electronic Voting Machines, Naidu and leaders of seven political parties including Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, CPI, Samajwadi Party declared that they would approach the Supreme Court over the alleged tampering and malfunctioning of polling machines.

"The Election Commission is not paying heed to our demand of transparency. Hence we have no other option but to approach the Supreme Court," senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters at a joint press conference with Naidu, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal among others.

Singhvi said 21 political parties, representing 75% of the voters, have backed the petition supporting counting of 50% of the VVPAT slips.

"Names of lakhs of voters have been deleted online without physical verification. Parties have given long lists to the EC. It has become even more necessary to count at least 50% of paper trail of VVPAT. We will demand the same in the Supreme Court," he siad.

Naidu said the opposition parties have been raising doubts about the EVMs and voter confidence can only be restored through paper trail machines.

On Saturday, Naidu had met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora with a litany of complaints about the conduct of assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh and renewed the pitch for returning to ballot paper for elections.

Arora had given Naidu a patient hearing and even tried to address the issues raised by him by giving certain clarifications. However, Commission's steadfast stand in support of the EVM's angered Naidu who later dubbed the poll authority as "insensitive, unrealistic, irresponsible and useless".

Naidu had sent his emissary Hari Prasad Vemuru for technical discussions on the EVMs, but the Commission did not entertain him contending that he was accused of stealing an EVM in 2010.

On Monday last, the Supreme Court had ordered counting of VVPAT slips of five EVMs in every constituency instead of one at present to improve voter confidence in the election process.