Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday attacked the central government, and questioned the point in holding elections to local civic bodies in Maharashtra without using electronic voting machines which have voter verifiable paper audit trail facility.
We have to maintain these EVMs and VVPAT machines and hearing is necessary as elections in states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Punjab are coming up,"
At the time of writing, the BJP was leading in as many as 19 seats in West Bengal. In 2014, the party had won only 2 seats.
Last night, BSP candidate Afzal Ansari sat on a protest outside the strongroom in Ghazipur -- where EVMs are being kept -- to prevent them from being transported out in a vehicle.
After the polling was marred by the malfunctioning of some EVMs, Naidu blasted the Election Commission (EC) for what he called 'turning the elections into a big farce'.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the poll body to increase VVPAT verification from one EVM per constituency to five randomly selected EVMs in the upcoming General Elections.
The Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and postal ballot papers would for the first time carry the photograph of all the candidates to help voters identify the political leaders in the fray.
In the plea, the opposition requested the court that 50 per cent of results of EVMs must be matched and cross-checked with VVPATs before the declaration of results in the general elections.
The Commission asked the state administration to conduct operations on EVMs and VVPATs in the presence of stakeholders such as political parties and candidates to ensure transparency.
Reiterating the Election Commission's stand that EVMs cannot be tampered with, the CEC said the electronic voting machines are being used for over two decades in India during elections.
