New Delhi: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, 21 opposition parties have approached the Supreme Court seeking verification of 50 per cent votes by paper trials before the declaration of the results of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The top court will hear the matter on Friday.
The parties that went to court include – the Congress, Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Left parties, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Earlier, during the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP had a sweeping victory in Uttar Pradesh, the opposition contended that the voting machines were tinkered with. BSP supremo Mayawati had called for a return to paper ballots.
Hence, with the nearing of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the petitioners want more safety norms and strict standards for EVMs. They also want 50 per cent of VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Trail Audit Machines) to be tallied with the voting machines.
