The representatives of 21 opposition parties will meet the Election Commission on Tuesday afternoon to air their concerns about Electronic Voting Machines and the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Trail Machines). Both Chandrababu Naidu and Mamata Banerjee have rubbished the exaggerated exit poll claims.
Banerjee called it “gossip” and said “the game plan is to manipulate or replace thousands of EVMs.’’ On Monday, Naidu said the Election Commission should establish transparency and accountability, and questioned why it is not conducting 50 per cent counting of the paper slips.
“If there is any discrepancy, then you have to go in for total counting in that assembly segment. Why you are delaying? Why are you avoiding?” he said. The Congress had asked all like-minded parties to jointly move the Election Commission to countermand the results in constituencies where there is a perceptible difference in the EVM results and count of the paper slips.
Meanwhile, in his blog, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday wrote: “Exit Polls are based on personal interviews. The EVMs have no role. If the results of the Exit Polls and final results on the 23rd May, 2019, are in the same direction, the Opposition’s fake issue of EVMs would also lose its non-existent rationale.”