Telangana Election Results: Congress alleges EVM manipulation, demands 100% counting of VVPAT slips

Hyderabad: Congress, appeared heading for a big loss in Telangana assembly elections, on Tuesday raised suspicion of EVM manipulation and demanded 100 percent counting of the VVPAT slips. As the Congress was leading in only 22 of the 99 seats it contested in the 7 December polls, its state unit President Uttam Kumar Reddy said there was a ‘strong’ suspicion that the Electronic Voting machines had been manipulated. The party also submitted a complaint to Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar regarding the same.

Hyderabad: Congress delegation submits a complaint to Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar raising suspicions that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been manipulated in the state. #AssemblyElections2018 pic.twitter.com/XTCL0Dcmnb

— ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2018

The ruling TRS appeared to be on course to return to power, taking the lead in 87 seats as per latest counting trends available. Going by the distorted trends, there is a strong suspicion that EVM machines have been manipulated. We demand that 100 percent counting of Voter-verifiable paper audit (VVPAT) paper trails must be taken up in all constituencies. All Congress candidates should submit letters to their returning officers demanding counting of VVPAT paper trails, a communication from the Congress quoted Reddy as saying. The Congress had forged an opposition alliance with the Telugu Desam Party, the Telangana Jana Samiti, and the CPI. The TDP was leading in two seats while the other alliance partners were trailing in the seats they contested. VVPAT or paper trail machine is a device which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted for. The slip appears on a small window for seven seconds and then drops in a box and provides a mean to the voter to verify his vote.