Opposition leaders meet over EVM concerns

Two days ahead of the Lok Sabha election results, leaders of around 20 opposition parties met here on Tuesday amid their concerns over the electronic voting machines (EVM) and use of VVPATs.

Among those who attended the meeting were Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, Nationalist Congress Party's Praful Patel, DMK's Kanimozhi, Trinamool Congress' Derek O'Brien, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party's Satish Chandra Misra, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Manoj Jha, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitraram Yechury, Communist Party of India leader D. Raja and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

The leaders will later meet the Election Commission (EC) about their concerns.

While going for the meeting, Yechury said there is no clarity on how the EC will take a decision if there is a mismatch between the EVM and VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail).

"The Supreme Court has ruled that there should be five per cent match between EVM and VVPAT. The question is that if there is a mismatch, what will the Election Commission do," he said.

Yechury said that in such a case there should be match between the VVPAT and EVM in the whole Assembly segment.

--IANS

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