New Delhi, Dec 15 (UNI) After reports that the Supreme court had turned down a plea by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) on Friday seeking direction to the Election Commission to count votes through paper trail attached to the EVMs in 20% of the polling booths in Gujarat, the Congress said the Apex court had allowed the party to wuthdraw its petition and file a fresh plea in the court in this regard.
.,'We express gratitude to the Supreme court for hearing our speacial leave petition. The Supreme court gave us full liberty to wuthdraw outr petition and file a fresh petition,'.AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.
Reiterating the Congress plea that the tally of the Electronics voting Machines be tallied with the VVPATs in at least 15 per cent of the booths in one constituency in the Gujarat assembly polls to ensure the fairness of the electoral process, Mr Singhvi said that while he welcomed the stance taken by the election commission that the votes polled in the EVMs need to be tallied with the VVPATS to ensure the transparency of the electoral process it had negated its own stand by providing for the tallying of the EVM voting with VVPATS in just one polling booth in a constituency . .
'The Election Commission had itself pointed out the need to verify the results of EVMs with VVPAT. By rejecting the need now, the Election Commission has rendered the entire process illusory, useless and non-effective," he said.
He said that the Election commisison has rendered the meaure for use of VVPATS with EVMS as non effective by stipulating that only one booth in a constituency has a manual check between the EVM votes and VVPATS.
Asserting that it was the Congress which had been at the forefront of the demand for using VVPATs with the EVMs to ensure the fairness of the electoral prcoess, Mr Singhvi said,'it was a result of the pressure exerted by the Congress that the EC was forced to write to the Government for using VVPATS.
'We are committed to something that increases faith in the electoral process and the EVMS,'Mr Singhvi said.
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