NEWDELHI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu has approached the Election Commission of India, seeking counter checking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) using Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) next week. In a letter to the poll panel, Naidu demanded verification of at least 50 per cent of the EVMs.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the review petition of 21 opposition parties seeking counter checking of at least 50 per cent of EVMs using VVPATs on Tuesday, May 7. The parties include Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], Communist Party of India (CPI) and others. The plea was mentioned for urgent hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta.
The top court had earlier increased the VVPAT from one EVM per Assembly segment to five randomly selected EVMs on April 8. The court said it was being done to ensure a high degree of accuracy and satisfaction in the election process.
leaders led by Naidu later sought the review of the SC’s order, saying the “increase from 1 to 5 is not a reasonable number and does not lead to satisfaction desired by this court”.
A bench comprising of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta will hear the plea on Tuesday.
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