Chandrababu Naidu, 21 opposition party leaders to meet EC today

New Delhi: A delegation of 21 opposition parties along with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu will knock the doors of Election Commission of India (ECI) at 3 pm on Tuesday, pressing their demand of tallying VVPAT slips with EVM figures in an entire Assembly constituency, in case a discrepancy is found in any polling booth.

Ahmed Patel of Congress, Sharad Pawar of NCP, Satish Chandra Misra of BSP, Sitaram Yechury of Communist Party of India (Marxist), D Raja of Communist Party of India (CPI) and Derek O'Brien of the TMC are expected to meet the EC.

On May 18, Naidu urged the Election Commission to count votes through Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) instead of EVMs during counting for the Lok Sabha polls.

On May 7, the Supreme Court turned down a review plea by 21 opposition parties seeking a direction to increase random physical verification of VVPAT from five to at least 50 per cent of EVMs.

The review petition was filed after the Supreme Court on April 8 directed the ECI to increase physical counting of VVPAT slips to 5 random EVMs in each constituency.

Earlier, only VVPAT slips from one EVM in every Assembly segment or constituency was subjected to physical verification.