Opposition parties ask Election Commission to match 50% of EVMs with VVPAT slips

Leaders of several opposition parties met the Election Commission on Monday to raise concerns over alleged tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

The demand

The delegation asked the commission to ensure that results from 50% of EVMs are tallied with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips before results are declared. The leaders told the commission that people had doubts about the reliability of EVMs and that these concerns needed to be addressed. They met the Chief Election Commissioner and the other members of the commission.

The parties had also pressed for a return to paper ballots, but the commission made it clear that going back to the old system was not possible. The opposition then shifted its focus to the VVPAT matching demand.

Who was in the delegation

• Congress: Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel and Anand Sharma
• TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, the Trinamool’s Derek O’Brien and the NCP’s Majid Menon
• The BSP’s Satish Chandra Misra, the SP’s Ramgopal Yadav and the National Conference’s Omar Abdullah
• From the Left, T K Rangarajan and Mohd Salim of the CPI-M and D Raja of the CPI
• The RJD’s Manoj Jha, the AAP’s Sanjay Singh and the JD-S’s Danish Ali
• The AIUDF’s Badruddin Ajmal, the RSP’s N K Premchandran and the NPF’s K G Kenye

Leaders of these parties had met at the Constitution Club on Friday to discuss their strategy on the issue.

What happened next

The Lok Sabha election was held between 11 April and 19 May 2019 and votes were counted on 23 May. The BJP won 303 of 543 seats and the Congress 52.

See also: elections and Telugu Desam Party

Originally published on 5 February 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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