Lok Sabha Polls 2019: Opposition leaders to meet EC officials regarding tallying of VVPAT slips with EVM figures

Lok Sabha Polls 2019: The Supreme Court has asked EC to tally the VVPAT slips with the EVM figures of five polling stations in each Assembly constituency across the country, which may delay the results.

LS Polls 2019: Ahead of the Lok Sabha poll results on May 23, leaders of various opposition parties will meet the Election Commission (EC) today and raise the issue of tallying paper trail of votes (VVPATs) with electronic voting machine (EVM) figures as per Supreme Court directions. (PTI)

LS Polls 2019: Ahead of the Lok Sabha poll results on May 23, leaders of various opposition parties will meet the Election Commission (EC) today and raise the issue of tallying paper trail of votes (VVPATs) with electronic voting machine (EVM) figures as per Supreme Court directions. The apex court has asked the commission to tally the VVPAT slips with the EVM figures of five polling stations in each Assembly constituency across the country, which may delay the results. The opposition parties are now demanding the tally of VVPAT slips with EVM figures in an entire Assembly constituency in case a discrepancy is found in any polling booth. The leaders are also alleging that the EVMs have been "compromised" and "can be manipulated", and thus, there should be tallying of its figures with VVPAT slips. Besides, leaders of opposition parties such as the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Left parties, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) will informally meet on Tuesday to discuss the way forward in case the BJP-led NDA fails to get to the majority mark, according to sources. Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, Sharad Pawar of the NCP, N Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP, Satish Chandra Misra of the BSP, Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), D Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Derek O'Brien of the TMC are expected to take part in today's meeting among others. About the allegation of EVMs being manipulated, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu has continued to voice his suspicions on the same, even as he said political parties were now busy protecting the machines as there were rumours that the data stored in those was being changed using a frequency. The TDP chief claimed that manipulating an EVM was as easy as tapping a phone and reiterated his demand for 50 per cent voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) verification in the Lok Sabha polls. His statement came in the wake of exit polls predicting another term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with some saying the NDA will get over 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha. (With inputs from PTI)