india

Updated: Apr 12, 2019 22:45 IST

The Election Commission of India came under fire from parties across the political spectrum for alleged irregularities in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 11.

In many cases, the criticism had to do with malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) at various places.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N Chandrababu Naidu called ECI the “most useless institution” in the country and a “branch office” of the (ruling) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for “turning the elections into a big farce”.

Naidu claimed that 35% EVMs malfunctioned during the polling in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, insisting that the voters had to suffer, and some of them waited till early hours of Friday to cast their votes.

Andhra Pradesh went to the polls for 175-member state assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats on Thursday. The ruling TDP fought an intense battle with the main opposition YSR Congress Party.

The EVM issue has become a sticking point in India’s politics with opposition parties, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), demanding, ahead of the elections, either a return to the ballot paper or increasing the number of voter verifiable paper audit trail machines (VVPATs) whose resuklts would be matched with those shown by EVMs.

Naidu said he would leave for New Delhi along with his party MPs and ministers on Saturday to file a review petition in the Supreme Court seeking an increasing in this number. The Supreme Court on Monday directed the EC to match 5% of VVPATs with EVM counts, following a petition filed by Naidu and leaders of 21 other opposition parties.

“The organisation run by people like TN Seshan has to become puppet in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Naidu told reporters in Amaravati. Seshan, a former Chief Election Commissioner was feared by political parties for his neutrality and no-nonsense style.

In Lucknow, BSP chief Mayawati claimed that EVMs malfunctioned in Uttar Pradesh during the first phase of polling, resulting in many votes cast going into the BJP’s account.

“I was told that in the first phase yesterday, police and official machinery was misused besides malfunctioning in EVMs as a result of which the votes being cast in favour of elephant were going in the account of lotus (BJP’s poll symbol),” she said in a statement.

Polling was held for eight seats of western Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.

Mayawati said the matter was brought to EC’s notice on Thursday itself and the poll panel “needs to find a solution to people’s satisfaction” to ensure that there is no complaint in this regard in the remaining six phases of polling.

If the poll panel does not initiate any strict step, the ongoing election process “would be of no use”, Mayawati said and hoped that something concrete will be done in this regard.

The BJP too accused the ECI for failing to provide enough security to voters in West bengal where, it alleged, there was wholesale rigging. It demanded a repoll in the state’s Cooch Behal seat which saw a voter turnout of 81%.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said ECI wasn’t acting against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for levelling charges against the Prime Minister concerning the Rafale Deal in which, she added, neither the Supreme Court nor the Comptroller and Auditor general had found anything wrong.“I feel let down by the Election Commission. They looked the other way in spite of our complaints.”