Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh urges EC to ensure security of VVPAT machines

Dharamshala: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Virbhadra Singh on Sunday urged the Election Commission to ensure proper security of VVPAT machines from the day of voting for the Assembly polls on 9 November till 18 December, the date of counting of votes. [caption id=“attachment_4194735” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Virbhadra Singh. PTI[/caption] Expressing his faith in the poll panel, he said the period between voting and counting is long, assurance for proper safety of the machines is required. Voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) is a machine which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted for. The slip drops in a box but the voter cannot take it home. Commenting about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh, Singh said the language being used by Modi does not match with the dignity of the chair and that from this, one can imagine the standard of his party too. Describing the Himachal Pradesh election as a “one-sided” contest, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Congress of running away from the battlefield and said it had nothing left to do but grieve in the coming days.