Telangana Assembly Election 2018: Congress Suspects EVMs Manipulation; TRS Says, ‘Losing Party Always Blames Voting Machines’

State Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that 100 per cent counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) be taken up.

Hyderabad: As the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) headed for a landslide victory in the state’s Assembly elections, the Congress party on Tuesday voiced the suspicion that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were manipulated. State Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that 100 per cent counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) be taken up.

He asked all Congress candidates to submit letters to returning officers concerned for counting of paper trails. “We will also complaint to ECI on this matter. How can TRS leaders say before counting that who will lose in elections,” said Reddy.

Hitting back at Congress, TRS MP, K Kavitha said,”The losing party always says the EVMs have been tampered with, this is absolutely false. Even the CEC in a press meeting on Tuesday said that it is not possible to tamper EVMs. People have given victory to TRS, what Congress is claiming is false.”

Notably, the TRS candidates were ahead of their rivals in 91 constituencies while the other major contender for power, the Congress-led People’s Front, was leading in just 22 Vidhan Sabha seats. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM that backed the TRS was leading in five. BJP nominees were ahead of their rivals in four constituencies and others were leading in three.