NEW DELHI: Opposition parties turned out in strength before the Election Commission Tuesday with a laundry list of demands they said were "confidence-building measures". The prime concern is the order of counting of national election votes on Thursday - the parties want the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) machines be considered first.
Tuesday morning, the Supreme Court dismissed a request seeking 100 per cent matching of VVPAT slips with the Voting Machines during counting, calling it "nonsense".
After the meeting, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "The Supreme Court said five random VVPATs should be counted, but the EC has said that counting will be done first and then VVPATs will be counted. We have said - let them count the five first so that if there is a problem, we can then count all of them before it is too late."
The Commission has said they would take a call on the issue Wednesday morning, said Congress's Abhishek Singhvi.
The delegation also flagged the movement of Electronic Voting Machines in five states - videos of which surfaced Tuesday morning - saying it reinforced their concerns about tampering. Clips of cellphone videos showed the movement of the EVMs in Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
"We are asking the EC to respect the mandate of people. It cannot be manipulated," TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu said.
BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra alleged "there is large-scale bungling relating to EVMs in Uttar Pradesh. We demand deployment of central forces".
The Election Commission on Tuesday rejected reports of alleged EVM tampering and asserted that all machines used in the elections are absolutely safe in the strong rooms.
The EC clarification came amid allegations that EVMs were being changed in the strong rooms in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The charges of manipulations surfaced after some videos went viral purportedly showing EVMs being transported in open trucks.
The poll body in a statement clarified: "Election Commission of India would like to emphatically and unambiguously clarify that all such reports and allegations are absolutely false and factually incorrect. The visuals seen viral on media do not pertain to any EVMs used during the elections," the poll body said in a statement.
Joining the ongoing controversy over EVMs, former President Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday expressed concern over the alleged tampering of voters' verdict saying the onus of ensuring institutional integrity lies with the Election Commission, which should put all speculation to rest.
He also said there can be no room for speculation that challenges the very basis of Indian democracy.
The BJP Tuesday condemned opposition parties for questioning the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines and asked them to accept their defeat with grace if the people vote Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power again.
Party leader and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took a swipe at the opposition, saying EVMs were fine when its leaders win elections and come to power, but the machines turn unreliable when it appears Modi will come back to power. See P5