Congress leader, apparently miffed over Shah’s assertions, said that the latter should also get the Election Commission to officially declare these numbers….reports Asian Lite News
While the electoral machinery of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains in top gear to achieve the ‘400 paar’ target, Congress leader Rashid Alvi stirred a row on Wednesday as he claimed that the ruling party will find crossing past ‘200 mark’ difficult, without irregularities in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
“Forget 400, they can’t even cross the 200 mark. It can be possible only if they do any game with EVMs, in which they are masters,” said Alvi hinting that the ruling party would resort to tampering with voting machines for staying in power.
His controversial comment came in response to Home Minister Amit Shah’s assertions that the party had already won 270 seats by the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections and now the fight was for taking it to the 400 mark.
Congress leader, apparently miffed over Shah’s assertions, said that the latter should also get the Election Commission to officially declare these numbers.
He also accused the ruling party of ‘befooling and misleading’ the electorate for electoral gains.
Notably, Alvi is the not the only leader to forecast BJP’s ‘dwindling’ numbers in the 2024 elections, below the 200 mark.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking to the Press along with SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday, said that the BJP won’t cross the 200 mark and added that it’s out of ‘nervousness’ that top BJP leaders are making tall claims about its Lok Sabha numbers.
“According to the numbers of the fourth phase, the INDIA bloc has taken the lead ahead and BJP-led NDA is trailing,” Kharge boasted before the newsmen.
He also added that the Congress party would bag enough numbers to stop the BJP’s march to power.
Recently, a review petition was filed in the Supreme Court against its recent verdict dismissing a batch of petitions seeking mandatory cross-verification of the votes cast in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.
The review petition, filed under Article 137 of the Constitution, stated that there are “mistakes and errors apparent on the face of the impugned order” and the judgment is liable to be reviewed.
On April 26, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said that while it acknowledged the fundamental right of voters to ensure their vote is accurately recorded and counted, the same cannot be equated with the right to 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips, or a right to physical access to the VVPAT slips, which the voter should be permitted to put in the drop box.
The apex court said that giving physical access to VVPAT slips to voters is “problematic and impractical”, and will lead to misuse, malpractices, and disputes. It rejected the submission to return to the ballot paper system as “foible and unsound”, adding that the weakness of the ballot paper system is well-known and documented.
However, the Supreme Court passed two directions not because it had any doubt, but to only further strengthen the integrity of the election process.
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