MP Polls: Congress's Digvijaya Singh Urges ECI To Handover VVPAT Slips To Voters, BJP Hits Back

Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Digvijaya Singh has urged the EC to handover VVPAT slips to voters in the state.

Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh.

Source : Getty

Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Ahead of the assembly polls, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh has hit the headlines after he urged the Election Commission of India to handover VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) slips to voters. Singh took to X and wrote to ECI, citing a report of tampering with EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) during a trial of the machines in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party reacted to Singh’s tweet, saying that whenever Congress is losing badly in elections, they start blaming EVMs.

"Respected Election Commission, we have only one request, please hand over the VVPAT slip to us separately, which we will keep in a separate ballot box. Before counting, count the votes from any 10 ballot boxes and tally them with the results from the counting unit. If the result of both is the same, then declare the result from the results of the counting unit. What problem does the Election Commission have with this? We request the Supreme Court to take this matter seriously and save democracy in the country," Singh wrote on X.

माननीय चुनाव आयोग जी @ECISVEEP आप से एक ही गुज़ारिश है। VVPAT slip हमें हाथ में दे दो जिसे हम अलग से रखे मतपेटी में डाल दें। मतगणना के पहले किसी भी १० मतपेटी के वोट गिन लो और Counting Unit के नतीजों से मेल कर लो। यदि दोनों का नतीजा एक जैसा है तो Counting Unit के नतीजों से रिजल्ट…

— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) October 23, 2023

The Congress leader also posted a YouTube link that showed that during the trial of the EVM in Madhya Pradesh, the VVPAT slip of only one political party was received.

BJP MP secretary Rajneesh Agarwal slammed the Congress Party over Digvijaya Singh's post and said, "Whenever Congress is losing badly in elections, it starts blaming EVMs. Even after the allegations were rejected going to the Supreme Court and ECI, Digvijaya Singh used to mislead the public and blame EVMs for the defeat of the Congress. There is no confidence left in Congress. Congress is already starting efforts to make such allegations," Agarwal said.

He further claimed that the BJP would register victory in the forthcoming assembly polls with over 150 out of 230 seats in the state. Madhya Pradesh is set to go to polls on November 17 and the counting of votes will take place on December 3.