lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 14, 2019 10:26 IST

Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party and the Election Commission are involved in a war of words over performance of electronic voting machines in the Andhra Pradesh assembly polls.

The poll panel wrote a letter to TDP on Saturday evening, hours after the Andhra CM met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, asking how a person involved in the alleged theft of EVM machines could be a part of Naidu’s delegation. The TDP replied that there was no chargesheet filed against the leader and the poll panel was trying to “avoid addressing the situation”.

Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal and other opposition leaders are expected to meet in Delhi on Sunday to discuss about transparency in elections and faulty EVMs.

Also read: ‘Revert to ballots’: Chandrababu Naidu to EC two days after Andhra polls

In its letter, the Election Commission said that Chandrababu Naidu was accompanied by Hari Prasad who is accused of EVM theft. The poll panel said it “completely intriguing” how Prasad was allowed to be part of the delegation.

“It turned out that Hari Prasad was involved in a criminal case regarding alleged theft of EVM machine in 2010 ON which an FIR was filed...Whatever maybe the eventual outcome of the investigation, it would be appreciated that such antecedents do not inspire confidence,” the letter said.

During his meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner on Saturday, He demanded that the Election Commission should revert to the system of recording votes through ballot papers and stop the use of electronic voting machines in polls. He said there are doubts regarding reliability of the EVMs.