AAP urges Election Commission to verify 20% of VVPAT slips in each constituency

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Bhopal: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today urged the Election Commission (EC) to verify at least 20 per cent of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips in every constituency to remove any doubts about the results declared by the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

An AAP delegation led by its chief spokesperson and MLA, Sourabh Bhradwaj, met the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat here and submitted a memorandum on the issue.

"We demanded from the EC is that any 20 per cent VVPAT slips in every constituency should be verified with the EVM results to remove any doubts about its functioning," Bharadwaj told reporters after the meeting with the CEC.

"Presently, slips of only a single VVPAT are counted and how that particular EVM is selected is also not clear," he said.

Bharadwaj added that it was also not clear what action is proposed to be taken in case there is an error in VVPAT's counting and the EC should clarify it.

AAP's state unit coordinator Alok Agrawal said, "We also demanded that the EC should put a ban on the publication and telecast of advertisements of political parties 48 hours prior to polling."

"Any political party which wants to give ads to media, should do so 48 hours before the polling," he said.

Bharadwaj claimed the AAP-led Delhi government had done a remarkable job in the areas of education and health.

"The education budget of the Delhi government is 24 per cent of the total outlay, which is more than any other state in the country. Electricity is the cheapest in Delhi despite the fact that it is purchasing power from other states of the country," he said.

"In Madhya Pradesh, there is surplus power production and yet the electricity is three times costlier as compared to Delhi," he said.

He claimed that no other state in the country had done so much work as was done by the AAP-led dispensation in Delhi in just three years.

Agrawal alleged that the situation in the area of drinking water, health, education, electricity and employment had completely deteriorated in Madhya Pradesh.

"The entire system in Madhya Pradesh has collapsed and Congress is not in a position to change it, as it only initiated all these things. Only AAP has the capability to bring changes in the state and is a viable alternative," Agrawal added.