As the Congress party at the national level has been raising a hue and cry over the alleged malpractices in the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the elections across the country, the YSR Congress party, too, joined the chorus on Thursday.
YSRCP Parliamentary Party leader Y V Subba Reddy, along with Lok Sabha leader P Mithun Reddy and former MP Bellana Chandrasekhar, met officials of the Election Commission of India in New Delhi and raised several serious concerns regarding the conduct of the 2024 elections.
The leaders expressed doubts over the technical functioning of EVMs, unexplained voter turnout surges, and inconsistencies between votes recorded for assembly and Parliament candidates at the same booths.
They pointed out that in Andhra Pradesh, around 51 lakh votes were polled in the final hour of voting, which raised suspicion across several constituencies.
They cited anomalies such as the drastic increase in EVM battery levels between polling day and counting day, which they said needed investigation.
They highlighted the example of Booth No. 28 in Hindupur constituency, where the YSRCP parliamentary candidate secured 472 votes while the assembly candidate got just one vote.
They also mentioned other discrepancies involving the Congress and the TDP vote patterns.
The YSRCP delegation urged the Commission to allow VVPAT slip verification and sought CCTV footage from key polling centres, which was reportedly denied.
They also demanded a special intensive revision of voter lists in Andhra Pradesh, similar to the process followed in Bihar, which the Commission agreed to consider.
Emphasizing transparency, Subba Reddy said the party had asked the Commission to shift to ballot paper voting in future elections, as practiced in developed countries like the US and Germany.
