NEW DELHI: With just 48 hours to counting day, a delegation of opposition leaders will on Tuesday visit the Election Commission (EC) demanding that VVPATs in assembly segments be counted in case of a mismatch between EVMs and VVPATs in the prescribed five polling booths.
Leaders from the Congress, Left parties, Trinamool, Telugu Desam Party, Samajwdi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, among others, will meet officials at the poll panel.
According to opposition leaders, there is an ambiguity over the procedure to be followed in case of mismatch between EVMs and VVPATs tally for five polling booths, as prescribed by the Supreme Court fin response to a plea by the opposition.
“On VVPATs and the EVM tally, the EC is yet to come out with a procedure in case there is a mismatch! Even if there is one mismatch in the VVPAT samples picked for counting and EVMs, to maintain integrity of the electoral process, all VVPATs in that assembly segment must be counted,” tweeted CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
CPI leader D Raja said that the EC had informed the opposition leaders during a previous meeting that they will come out with guidelines if there is a mismatch between numbers of VVPATs and EVMs, but didn’t. The move comes after most exit polls giving a thumping majority to the BJP led NDA.
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said, “Opposition parties even knocked the doors of the Supreme Court asking for traditional ballet paper elections to avoid defective Electronic Voting Machines that are vulnerable to fraud. Worldwide, even developed countries have opted for traditional polls through paper ballets.”