New Delhi: The group of 21 opposition leaders was dealt a severe blow in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections with the Supreme Court rejecting their review petition that demanded 50 per cent VVPATs be counted during the election results.
The Opposition will now be moving the Election Commission (EC) again asking them to review their vote counting guidelines.
Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, who was among one of the opposition leaders who had appealed in the court said, “We are demanding transparency in the election process.”
Chandrababu Naidu also said that the parties are planning to go to the Election Commission on Tuesday itself to ask them to review their counting guidelines.
“We spent Rs 9000 crore on VVPATs. Why can’t we count them and have more transparency? We are thinking of going to the Election Commission to ask them to revise their guidelines. We want them to count all VVPAT slips in an assembly segment where there are any mismatches found in EVM and VVPAT results,” said Chandrababu Naidu, standing outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday after the court’s ruling.
Several other opposition leaders, including National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, CPI leader D Raja and Congress leader and Opposition advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was also standing with Naidu when the group made a joint statement.
Farooq Abdullah said, “The basic interest is to hold fair elections. We respect the Supreme Court order, but we also need to take this to the people of the country, who are supreme.”
CPI leader D Raja said, “Conducting free and fair mandate of EC. Also counting should be free and fair. We respect SC order, but we the parties represent the people. We represent sovereign will of the people.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea filed by 21 opposition leaders seeking a review of its April 8 order directing the EC to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to five polling booths per assembly segment.
“We are not inclined to modify our order,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.
The plea was filed by opposition leaders led by Chandrababu Naidu.
