New Delhi, May 22: Congress leader Udit Raj on Wednesday questioned the Supreme Court on the way it dealt with complaints of EVM rigging and with petitions seeking review of 100 per cent VVPAT slips along with electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the Lok Sabha elections results. Triggering another political row, Udit Raj, who quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently, asked if the Supreme Court was involved in rigging elections.

"Why does the Supreme Court not want all the VVPAT slots to be counted? Is it also involved in rigging? In the process of selection, when the government work has been slow for almost three months, then it takes two to three days to count," Raj said in a tweet. On May 7, the Supreme Court junked a plea filed by 21 Opposition parties seeking review of its April judgement. Count VVPAT Slips Before EVM For Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Results: Opposition Leaders Tell ECI.

Udit Raj's controversial tweet:

In April, the apex court had rejected a plea seeking direction for the Election Commission to verify 50 per cent random EVMs with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail or VVPAT. The top court, however, asked the poll panel to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs from one to five machines at polling booths per Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a PIL which sought 100 per cent verification of VVPAT slips with the EVMs during the counting of votes on May 23 for the recently held Lok Sabha elections. The plea was filed by Tech for All, a Chennai-based organisation.

22 Opposition parties also approached the Election Commission on Tuesday demanding that VVPAT slips at randomly selected five polling booths should be counted first, and if any discrepancy occurs, then VVPAT slips should be tallied for the entire assembly segments.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 22, 2019 11:55 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).