The Congress party has distanced itself from the petitions filed in the Supreme Court seeking 100% cross verification of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) votes with their Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. The party clarified that it was not a party to the pleas either directly or indirectly. However, the party’s campaign on the greater use of VVPATs to increase public trust in the electoral process will continue. Congress General Secretary (communications), Jairam Ramesh, stated that the party took note of the verdict of the two-judge bench and emphasized that their campaign will persist.

Later in the day, Ramesh responded to the attack by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the opposition regarding the EVM verdict. Ramesh reiterated that the Congress had no involvement in the pleas filed in the Supreme Court. Ramesh pointed out that it was actually the Prime Minister who should apologize to the nation, referring to a previous Supreme Court ruling that declared the electoral bonds scheme, which had been marred by corruption, illegal and unconstitutional.

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