Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : Leaders of 19 opposition parties on Tuesday met to discuss the post May 23 scenario and later petitioned the Election Commission over demands of EVM and VVPAT verification.
Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Abhishek Singhvi; Trinamool Congress party’s Derek O Brien, Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India’s D Raja, Nationalist Congress Party’s Praful Patel, National Conference’s Devendra Rana and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham’s Kanimozhi, among others attended the meeting after which all the leaders reached the EC to make their demands.
In its memorandum, submitted later in the day, opposition parties demanded verification of VVPAT slips of randomly identified polling stations before, and not after, votes are counted. They also demanded verification of all VVPATs in an assembly segment should there by any discrepancy in counting.
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 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,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters here after meeting EC officials
Azad’s party colleague Abhishek Singhvi said despite requests to the EC since months, the poll body has now said it will meet on Wednesday to discuss the issue
“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
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Satish Chandra Mishra alleged that “there is large-scale bungling relating to EVMs in Uttar Pradesh. We demand deployment of central forces”
The opposition parties also raised concerns over the transportation of EVMs ahead of counting of votes and urged the EC to probe the issue
The opposition parties are seeking transparency and fairness in the counting of votes and respecting the mandate of the people of the country.
