TDP for use of ballot papers in Hyderabad civic body polls

Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam Party today urged the State Election Commission to use ballot papers instead of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the ensuing Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections.

"The usage of EVMs be temporarily suspended till all doubts about their genuineness are cleared and people are confident about its efficacy," TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu said in a letter to the State Election Commissioner A V S Reddy here today.

A debate regarding efficacy of the EVMs is currently on, he said.

At the national level, leaders of all political parties, including Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, have expressed their doubts over the reliability of EVMs, he said.

Naidu said an NGO Janachaitanya Vedika has demonstrated that EVMs are vulnerable to manipulation.

While Vedika has filed an PIL pleading for discontinuation of its use, the Election Commission of India too ordered an inquiry into the allegations levelled by former bureaucrat Omesh Saigal that it is "possible and plausible" to rig the EVMs, Naidu claimed.

Many countries in the world too have banned the use of EVMs, he added.

Bureau Report