Naidu-led Opposition to move SC on EVMs

TDP Chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu appears to have succeeded in convincing a section of the Opposition to move Supreme Court against the Election Commission’s refusal to concede their demand on doing away with the EVMs.

At a joint press conference, Naidu made it clear that several countries world over, especially developed nations in European Union, have done away with EVMs as they proved failure.  He said, when such developed nations can get back to ballot paper process, what prevents the Indian Election Commission to do so. Apart from dispense with the EVMs, the alternative proposal of the Opposition been to ensure verification of at least 50 per cent of all votes by a paper trail.

He said only when such transparency is ensured in the electoral process, it would difficult to protect democracy as such.  Those who attended the joint press conference addressed by Naidu, including the Congress representatives – Kapil Sibal and Abishek Manu Singhvi, Delhi CM and AAP President Arvind Keriwal, Samajwad Party, CPM and CPI.

Kejriwal accused the ruling BJP for programming EVMs to win the polls.

Naidu, who met the CEC Sunil Arora to raise the issue of EVMs malfunctioning, but was apparently got rebutted.  CEC told Naidu that the expert fielded by him had earlier run into trouble with the Commission over EVMs hacking.  Later, Naidu at the news conference said, his tech advisor Hari Prasad Vemuri, who accompanied him is not a ‘thief’, but a ‘whistleblower’.

Visibly upset with the CEC’s rebuttal, Naidu he well aware of technology as he had been known as a pioneer by people across the country.  In that context, he said ‘we must develop and best utilize technology, but should become slaves.’

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had directed the EC on Monday to increase the random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to five polling booths per assembly segment from mere one of the present.