TRS gives Congress befitting reply over EVM tampering claims

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee's Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged discrepancies in counting of votes for the assembly elections in the state.

Reddy on Tuesday stated that his party has doubts on ballot paper counting and also hinted at tampering in EVM and suggested that VVPAT slips should be counted to ensure transparency.

"I am having doubts on results we're getting in Telangana ballot paper counting. We doubt that tampering could have been done in EVMs. Slips should be counted in VVPATs," he said.

The Congress delegation has also submitted a complaint to Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar regarding the same.

According to latest figures, the ruling TRS is maintaining a lead of 90 seats, way ahead of the magic mark of 60.

Congress and BJP are ahead on 16 and 1 seat, respectively.

TRS MP from Nizamabad, K Kavitha hit back Reddy's claims and termed his allegation as "totally false".

"The losing party always says the EVMs have been tampered with, this is absolutely false. Even the CEC in a press meeting yesterday said that it is not possible to tamper EVMs. People have given victory to TRS, what Congress is claiming is false," Kavitha asserted.

119 assembly seats are at stake in the youngest state of the country.

The major players in the southern state are the TRS, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM), BJP and a grand alliance called 'Praja Kutami', that comprises of Congress, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).

A total of 1,821 candidates were in the fray for the Assembly elections in Telangana. The state recorded a voter turnout of over 73 per cent.