Check claims that BJP got extra votes in EVMs during mock polls in Kerala, Supreme Court tells EC

The Supreme Court on Thursday verbally directed the Election Commission to verify claims that extra votes had been registered in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Electronic Voting Machines during a mock poll in Kerala, Live Law reported.

This came a day ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing a batch of petitions seeking tallying of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail slips to verify votes cast through the Electronic Voting Machines.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the nongovernmental organisation Association for Democratic Reforms, told the court that a report published by Manorama Online had cited complaints raised in connection with the mock polls conducted using Electronic Voting Machines in Kerala’s Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency.

The report said that the ruling Left Democratic Front in the state and the United Democratic Front had submitted complaints to the district collector stating that at least four of the Electronic Voting Machines had erroneously recorded extra votes in favour of the BJP.

In response, the court told Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, representing the Election Commission, to look into the claims.

The case

Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail is a machine that prints a paper slip of the candidate’s name, serial number and the party’s symbol after a voter...

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