The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has decided to move the court on what it alleged manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines in favour of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the ‘dubious’ role of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar in the elections.
A meeting of the senior leaders and all the contestants in the just-concluded elections held at Gandhi Bhavan on Friday also decided to appeal to the party high command to raise the issue in Parliament, chief spokesperson of the Telangana Congress Sravan Dasoju said.
Mr. Sravan, who briefed the media along with TPCC working president Ponnam Prabhakar and PCC spokesperson Addanki Dayakar here said that the party will also meet the Election Commission of India (ECI) with all the proofs of manipulation and how Mr. Rajat Kumar allegedly supported the ruling party ignoring the representations made by the opposition parties. “We will start the movement with the slogan ‘Bring Back Ballot Paper’ so that democracy survives,” he said.
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Polling figures
He said several discrepancies in the information given by the CEO and his team indicate large scale manipulation. For example in Narsapur constituency officials revealed only 8.33% polling but it crossed 70% by 5 p.m. However, in the morning the figures revealed shows that 90% polling was done. Similar discrepancies were seen in Mancheriyal where 65% polling was declared by evening but it was changed to 73% by morning, he claimed. “But the CEO doesn’t have answers for any of these,” he alleged.
Mr. Sravan alleged that the TRS win was not because of People’s Mandate but EVM’s Mandate.
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Earlier, in the meeting majority of the contestants said the results shocked them as despite such opposition to the ruling party the margins were huge. Moreover, response to the Congress candidates’ campaign was so positive and such huge margins were not just possible going by the situation at the ground. TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, working presidents Mohd Azharuddin, Kusum Kumar and senior leaders K. Jana Reddy and D.K. Aruna were among present.
Information under RTI
The party has sent a form to all the contestants to be filed under the Right to Information Act seeking details of the register of voters, account of votes recorded, record of events mentioned in each presiding officer’s diary and screen shot of the close button display panel and the time of the EVMs and VVPATs sealed.
The candidates were also asked to seek information for inspection of VVPAT slips of each EVM used in the polling. The party has asked the candidates to take the issue seriously as it plans to move the court and other concerned officials with the information provided.