Hyderabad: Accused the Election Commission of making poll process a "big farce", Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu has said that he will march to Delhi tomorrow to file a review petition in Supreme Court in connection with the voting held in first phase.
"This is a very big farce. Disaster for the nation. I can say it is a big confusion, big mess, big farce," Naidu said in a restless tone. He claimed that as per "official information" 4,583 EVMs got stuck in the state and noted that it was a "major crisis".
He found fault with the Deputy Election Commissioner's clarification that there was no problem with the EVMs in AP. "I have never seen such an insensitive, unrealistic, irresponsible and useless Election Commission. Do you make a mockery of democracy? EC turned into BJP branch office," the TDP chief said.
"As senior leader I have to warn them (EC). Country should know. They should not commit any more these type of mistakes," Naidu added. The TDP chief also said he would file a review petition in the Supreme Court over its order on counting of VVPAT slips. "I am going to file a petition for counting of at least 25 per cent of the VVPAT slips," he added.
"I am going to Delhi tomorrow (to meet the ECI officials). EC should answer why it did all this. After this we will go logically on EVMs," he said and reiterated the demand that the country revert to the old ballot paper system.
The Chief Minister disputed the EC's claim that it will take six days to count VVPAT slips. "This can be done in six hours. I am ready to prove this. Remember, how long it was taking to count of ballot papers, maximum 24 hours."
The Supreme Court, while hearing a petition by these parties, had directed the EC on April 8 to increase the random matching of the VVPAT slips with the EVMs to five polling booths per Assembly segment, from one at present. The court, however, did not agree to the demand by the parties for matching at least 50 per cent of the VVPAT slips with the EVMs.
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