Unhappy with EVM troubles in Andhra, Chandrababu Naidu writes to EC

[Spartan]

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu is mulling to move the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Election Commission to tally slips from at least 25 per cent VVPAT machines with record of EVMs in each assembly constituency in the state, reported Hindustan Times.

Naidu said that he had been advocating the usage of ballot papers instead of EVMs, which can be tampered.

“But the Election Commission was not bothered. At least now, it should have a rethinking on conducting the polls with ballot papers,” he added.

Due to technical glitches, there have been reports of malfunctioning of EVMs from almost all districts and voting did not begin till 9am at several places in Anantapur, Guntur, Kadapa and Kurnool.

According to ANI, in a letter to the poll body, Naidu wrote: “Likely that many voters who returned may not come back for voting even if polling is resumed after replacement / repair of existing EVMs. Therefore repolling needed in all polling stations where polling had not commenced till 9.30am.”

The TDP chief said he is planning to file a review petition in the top court, which directed the Election Commission to tally five VVPATs with the votes cast in the EVMs in each constituency. Earlier, the poll body announced to tally one VVPAT record with EVM in each constituency.

Andhra Pradesh is voting for all 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats simultaneously on Thursday in the first phase of the parliamentary polls.