Naidu to spearhead opposition meet over election issues today

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and TDP President Nara Chandrababu Naidu and other leaders of opposition parties will hold a meeting on Tuesday over election-related issues.

The meeting scheduled at Delhi's constitution club is expected to be centred around issues concerning the recently concluded general elections and the role of Election Commission of India (ECI).

After the meeting, a delegation of 21 opposition parties along with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu will knock the doors of Election Commission of India (ECI), pressing their demand of tallying VVPAT slips with EVM figures in an entire Assembly constituency, in case a discrepancy is found in any polling booth.

Ahmed Patel of Congress, Sharad Pawar of NCP, Satish Chandra Misra of BSP, Sitaram Yechury of Communist Party of India (Marxist), D Raja of Communist Party of India (CPI) and Derek O'Brien of the TMC are expected to meet the EC along with Naidu.

Naidu is at the forefront of ongoing efforts to stitch a united opposition ahead of the May 23 elections.

He had met with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Monday, continuing his efforts to cobble a non-BJP coalition post-poll, notwithstanding exit poll predictions giving BJP a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha elections.

In recent past Naidu had met various leaders including Congress President Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

On May 18, Naidu urged the Election Commission to count votes through Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) instead of EVMs during counting for the Lok Sabha polls.

On May 7, the Supreme Court turned down a review plea by 21 opposition parties seeking a direction to increase random physical verification of VVPAT from five to at least 50 per cent of EVMs.