Tight Slap to 'Vote Looters': PM Modi's First Response After SC Junked EVM Pleas

Araria: As the Supreme Court on Friday thumbed-up Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) pattern of polling and junked pleas to revive paper ballot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the verdict came as a ‘tight slap’ for opposition parties apprehensive of voting system.

The apex court announced the much anticipated verdict on EVM-VVPAT verifcation case, rejecting all pleas seeking complete verification of the votes recorded in the EVMs with VVPAT slips.

Addressing a public rally in Araria, Bihar, PM Modi said, "When the poor and honest voters have the strength of EVM, they are trying all they can to get rid of the EVM. Today, the Supreme Court has given a strong verdict saying that the old system of ballot paper voting will not come back."

Terming the opposition parties as ‘vote-looters,' he added that RJD and Congress alliance in Bihar neither cares about the Constitution of India, nor about the democracy.  

"When the entire country is happy with the technology used during elections, the ‘vote looters (opposition parties)' are going against the system. Today's SC verdict is a tight-slap on the face of these parties. It came as a big jolt for them. It's a big win for the democracy."  

He further upped the ante and said that Congress and the INDI Alliance parties must apologise to the nation for acting as a wanderer during the crucial election season.

EVM-VVPAT Case: SC Verdict 

Passing the crucial verdict, the apex court noted that democracy is ‘about striving to build harmony and blindly distrusting poll process can lead to unwarranted suspicion.’

Rejecting the pleas seeking 100 per cent cross-verification of EVM and VVPAT slips, the court passed two directions.  

The first direction was that after the completion of symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be sealed and they should be stored at least for 45 days.

The second direction issued by SC was that there will be option for candidates to get the microcontroller program of EVMs to be checked by a team of engineers after the declaration of results, such a request is to be made by the candidate within seven days after the declaration of results.