Opposition approaches SC seeking matching of half EVM results with VVPAT

More than 21 Opposition parties have approached the Supreme Court seeking direction that 50 per cent EVM results are matched and crosschecked with voter-verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs) before the declaration of results in the upcoming general elections.

The case will be heard tomorrow by a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The opposition parties had earlier raised the issue of faulty EVMs during state elections.

The move is being coordinated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and several other leaders have joined him in filing the petition.

The other petitioners in the case are Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, Derek O'Brien, MK Stalin, Farooque Abdullah among others.

Earlier on February 1, Opposition parties had organised a 'Save the Nation, Save the Democracy' meeting and formulated strategy to approach the Election Commission of India over the issue of alleged tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

Later in the same month, the opposition parties led by Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had also visited the Election Commission and requested the commission to make mandatory the count of half of the votes of all EVMs through paper trails.