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SC dismisses Congress plea to verify 25% paper trail in Gujarat

In a blow for the Congress, the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday dismissed its plea seeking to get cross verified…

SC dismisses Congress plea to verify 25% paper trail in Gujarat

EVM (PHOTO: AFP)

In a blow for the Congress, the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday dismissed its plea seeking to get cross verified at least 25 per cent of the VVPAT paper trail votes polled in recently concluded Gujarat Assembly polls.

Alarmed by all exit polls predicting a massive victory for the BJP in Gujarat, the Congress had earlier in the day urged the apex court to direct the Election Commission to count and cross verify the paper trail votes with EVM votes.

Senior Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal appeared on behalf of the party.

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines are used during election process to verify that the vote polled by a voter goes to the correct candidate.

The Election Commission can then tally the slips from a particular Electronic Voting Machine’s (EVM’s) compartment and tally the paper records with the votes cast in the machine.

This comes a day after the Congress launched an unprecedented attack on the Election Commission, accusing it of being a “puppet” of the Prime Minister’s Office

Meanwhile, all exit polls have predicted a victory for the ruling BJP in Gujarat, giving it a clear majority in the keenly-contested Assembly polls in the state.

The results of the Gujarat polls along with Himachal Pradesh will be declared on Monday.

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