Opposition: VVPAT match must precede count

New Delhi: Amid claims of unusual movement of electronic voting machines (EVMs) before the big counting day on May 23, an aggressive Opposition on Tuesday met the Election Commission (EC) and raised a slew of demands regarding EVMs and VVPAT matching, even as former President Pranab Mukherjee expressed concerns over the safety of voting machines.

Mr Mukherjee, who had on Monday praised the EC, raised concerns over alleged tampering of EVMs and said that the prime responsibility of the poll panel should be to put all speculation around the voting machines to an end.

“I am concerned at reports of alleged tampering of voters’ verdict. The safety and security of EVMs which are in the custody of the EC is the responsibility of the commission,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The 22 Opposition parties, which had a short meeting before they went to the EC, also demanded that all suspicious movement of EVMs should be probed and 100 per cent VVPAT verification should be done in cases where complaints were received.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “The Supreme Court said five random VVPATs should be counted, but the EC has said that counting will be done first and then VVPATs will be counted. We have said that let them match the five VVPATs first, so that if there is a problem, we can then count all of them before it is too late.”

The Opposition parties’ EVM representation came on a day when the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking 100 per cent matching of VVPAT slips with the EVMs during counting, calling it “nonsense”.

The Opposition leaders which went to the EC included Congress’ Ashok Gehlot, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, TMC’s Derek O’ Brien, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D. raja, TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra.

“We told the EC that VVPAT machines should be counted first and if there is any discrepancy, then all of them in that segment should be counted. During elections, there were many EVMs which malfunctioned. In many cases, when votes for one political party were cast EVMs showed votes for some other party, specially the BJP,” Mr Naidu said after meeting the EC.

The Opposition leaders submitted a memorandum to the EC over these demands and also showed a video clip on EVMs.

Sources, however, told this newspaper that the full EC which heard out the Opposition did not give any positive assurance to the leaders and instead pointed out that the Supreme Court had already dismissed a petition seeking a test of 50 per cent VVPAT machines.

At this point, Mr Naidu intervened and said that the Opposition parties were not there to waste the EC’s time and were there to raise some genuine concerns, sources said.

The leaders of UP parties the SP and the BSP as well as Congress’ Raj Babbar raised concern over the safety of EVMs in the state, while Mr O’ Brien questioned the presence of Central forces in West Bengal till May 27, they said.

A miffed Trinamul is also understood to have asked the EC “if Emergency has been declared” in the state, sources said.

However, dissatisfied with the EC’s response, the Opposition parties met again and shortly afterwards the Andhra Pradesh chief minister flew to Karnataka to meet chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and his father former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda.

Sources said though the attempt was made to present a united Opposition, there was no discussion on any post-result scenario as the top leadership of the parties was not present on Tuesday.

A PTI report, however, claimed that Opposition leaders discussed the possibility of a non-NDA alliance staking claim to form government in case the BJP-led NDA fails to win a majority.

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