Congress leader Udit Raj stirred a controversy on Wednesday when he questioned if the Supreme Court was involved in rigging elections and hence did not want all VVPAT slips to be counted.
Raj’s statement comes amid a growing demand by the Opposition to verify VVPAT slips of randomly selected polling stations before the counting of votes polled in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election begins on May 23.
सप्रीम कोर्ट क्यों नहीं चाहता की VVPAT की सारी पर्चियों को गिना जाए क्या वो भी धाँधली में शामिल है।चुनावी प्रक्रिया में जब लगभग तीन महीने से सारे सरकारी काम मंद पड़ा हुआ है तो गिनती में दो- तीन दिन लग जाए तो क्या फ़र्क़ पड़ता है @priyankagandhi @INCDelhi @RahulGandhi @PTI_News
— Dr. Udit Raj, MP (@Dr_Uditraj) May 22, 2019
Leaders of 21 political parties have 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.
In a meeting with the Election Commission on Tuesday, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said: “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.”
The opposition parties also raised concerns over the transportation of EVMs ahead of counting of votes and urged the EC to probe the issue after several media reports showed ‘unsecured’ movement of EVMs in Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing the allegations about each of the four places from where the incidents were reported, the poll panel said “the EVMs were in proper security and protocol”.