Oppn to seek 100 per cent VVPAT count in case of mismatch

New Delhi: As exit polls predicted a clean sweep for the NDA, Opposition parties have decided to meet the Election Commission on Tuesday demanding a 100 percent VVPAT count in case a mismatch is found in any Assembly segment even as BSP chief Mayawati quelled rumours of coming to Delhi to meet Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother former UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

If the BSP chief would have met the Gandhis, it would have been a significant step towards consolidation of Opposition moves.

However, her aide and BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra said, “Mayawatiji has no programmes or meetings in Delhi on Monday. She will be in Lucknow”. Later, however, Ms Mayawati met with Samajwadi President Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow.

On Sunday she had met TDP chief N. Chandra-babu Naidu, who has been trying to bring the Opposition parties on a common platform.

Mr Naidu flew to Kolkata to meet Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and would reach the national capital late tonight.

On Tuesday, Mr Naidu would lead the Opposition delegation to the Election Commission and is likely to sit on a dharna outside the EC at around 3 PM.

Other leaders who would be present, sources told this newspaper are NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Kapil Sibal, BSP’s Satish Mishra, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI’s D. Raja besides representatives from parties like Trinamul Congres and DMK.

The parties would be demanding 100 percent VVPAT counting in Assembly segments where any mismatch is found.

“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,” Mr Yechury tweeted on Monday.

Despite demoralising predictions by exit polls, Mr Naidu has taken a lead in getting the Opposition act together.

Mr Naidu had on Saturday met Congress president Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and a host of other senior Opposition leaders.

The Opposition parties also had plans of submitting a letter to President Ramnath Kovind with the signatures of all Opposition anti-NDA parties requesting him to consider them as a single block whicle extending invitation to form the government.

The Opposition led by Congress had also initiated contact with YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy and Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekar Rao to join the UPA in case of a hung Lok Sabha.

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