NEW DELHI, Dec 10: There’s is no mismatch between VVPAT slips (Voter verifiable paper audit trail) and voting machine (EVM) numbers, said Chief Election Officer Maharashtra, rejecting the Opposition allegations about a vote mismatch in the just concluded Maharashtra state polls.
According to rules laid down by the Supreme Court and the Election Commission, it is mandatory to count VVPAT slips of randomly selected five polling stations per Assembly constituencies and to match it against the numbers in EVMs.
A VVPAT slip count of randomly selected 5 polling stations per assembly constituency was conducted on November 23, the vote counting day in Maharashtra, in front of the Counting Observer and representatives of candidates, said the Chief Election Officer Maharashtra.
“As per that, slip count of 1440 VVPAT units from 288 Assembly constituencies of Maharashtra state has been tallied with respective Control Unit Data. There is no discrepancy found between VVPAT slip count and EVM Control unit count as per the reports received from the concerned District Election Officials (DEO). Due procedure laid by ECI has been followed,” said the officer.
Over the weekend, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, had noted that the trend of criticism was on the rise and the ability to praise or see the positives was on a decline. “What surprises me, positively, is the resilience of the Indian voter… this country can resolve all its issues peacefully through the ballot, not the bullet… This is the biggest satisfaction,” Mr Kumar had said.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi – fronted by the Congress and the Shiv Sena and NCP factions – having lost poorly in the Maharashtra election is said to be planning a national protest against the credibility of the EVMs which it blames for its dismal show.
The Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had earlier protested against the use of voting machines and suggested a return to ballot paper. “We should all unite and move forward together and push them aside. I do not wish to speak about elections, but I would surely say the votes of all the poor and oppressed communities are going to waste. They should all demand voting by ballot paper,” the 82-year-old Congress chief had said.
Taking a swipe at the leaders of the Opposition alliance over their allegation surrounding EVMs, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday said let MLAs resign and let re-election take place. “No one takes them (MVA) seriously…If they don’t have trust in EVMs the MPs and MLAs of Congress, NCP-SCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) should resign in protest of EVMs and let re-election take place,” said Mr Goyal.
(Manas Dasgupta)
