Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh urges the Election Commission to ensure proper security of the VVPAT machines to be used for voting form the day of voting from 9 Nov till 18 Dec, the date of counting of the votes.
The assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh will be held on 9 Nov and the results will be announced on 18 Dec along with the results of Gujarat assembly polls due on 9 Dec and 14 Dec. The incumbent CM and the Congress chief ministerial candidate expressing his concern over the security said that, since the gap between the voting date and the results date is too long, therefore it is necessary that proper security of the VVPAT machines is ensured, so that the counting of the votes is not impacted in any way.
Voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) is a machine which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted for. The slip drops in a box but the voter cannot take it home.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AK Jyoti, on 12 Oct had announced that VVPATs along with EVMs will be used during the voting. He had also informed that for the first time, Himachal Pradesh will have 136 all-women managed booths.
Virbhadra Singh also commented on the remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his rallies in the poll-bound state. He said that “the language being used by Modi does not match with the dignity of the chair and from this one can imagine the standard of his party too.”
Narendra Modi, while addressing a rally on Sunday had mockingly said that the election in Himachal Pradesh is one sided contest. He had also commented that the ruling Congress had already accepted its defeat and had left the battle field and ran. He had remarked that the Congress party is no more campaigning for Virbhadra Singh and had left him in the hands of the fate and now the Congress had nothing left to do but grieve in the coming days.
The Prime Minister in his earlier rallies had also termed the Congress as termite and said that if the state wishes to be free from the diseases it will have to totally finish this termite from Himachal Pradesh. Modi had even commented that the Congress party needs to punished to be taught a lesson only than it will improve.
Reacting to all these comments made by the Prime Minister, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that the language being used by Modi is showing the standard of his party.