EC must clear all suspicions on EVMs: Bhatti

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that it was duty of Election Commission of India to clear all suspicions revolving around usage of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in polling. 

Addressing a 'Meet The Press' programme organised by Telangana Urdu Working Journalists Federation in colloboration with Indian News Network (INN) here on Thursday, Bhatti said that the role of ECI in conducting recent Assembly elections was highly questionable. Besides the suspicion of tampering in EVMs, there were other alleged irregularities like deletion of genuine voters and existence of bogus electorates. He said that the EC must have cleared all the doubts from the minds of voters. Unfortunately, this did not happen. 

Bhatti said that there was a huge difference in the number of actual votes polled and those counted in EVMs. The EC has failed to give an explanation for this further. Further, he questioned the reluctance of poll authorities in allowing counting of VVPATs slips. He said a candidate has every right to demand re-counting. However, if VVPATs are not to be counted in case of a dispute, then whey were introduced in the first place? he asked. 

The Leader of Opposition said that the Congress party has been agitating against these irregularities and attitude of Election Commission. He said that the EC has already been petitioned and a case has been filed in the court. He said that the Congress party would also meet the Governor and President of India on this. 

Bhatti also dismissed speculations of some Congress MLAs joining the ruling TRS. He also denied of Congress leaders having internal differences. He said everyone, from the President to booth-level worker, were working unitedly to strengthen the party. He said several factors were responsible for party's defeat in recently held Assembly elections. They include delay in distribution of tickets and seat sharing pact with other allies. 

He said that the Congress party would raise issues pertaining to agriculture, unemployment, welfare, industries and infrastructure in the forthcoming budget session of Assembly. He also demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao expand his cabinet soon to ensure proper governance.