After MVA rout in Maharashtra polls, Kharge calls for ballot paper, Sharad Pawar throws weight behind it

Many of Congress’s INDIA bloc allies, however, signalled that, astatine slightest for now, they were not connected the aforesaid leafage arsenic the Congress connected scrapping EVMs.

Addressing a Constitution Day lawsuit organised by the Congress successful the superior Tuesday, enactment main Mallikarjun Kharge said: “I volition accidental 1 thing…and our Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi volition besides agree. Hamara sab…jitni bi shakti lagage ke SC, ST, OBC, gareeb tapke ke log, chote assemblage ke log…yeh log jo apne ballot de rahe hain…woh ballot fizool ja raha hai. (all the votes formed by the SC, ST, OBC, mediocre and radical from smaller communities are going successful vain).

“Nahin woh EVM chod do, humko EVM, PVM kuch nahi…humko hona ballot insubstantial pe ballot bas…Let those machines beryllium kept astatine their houses. Let those beryllium kept astatine Modi saheb’s residence, oregon astatine Shah’s residence oregon successful immoderate godown. There are galore godowns successful Ahmedabad, fto those machines beryllium kept there…We lone privation insubstantial (ballots). Then you volition get to cognize what your situation, your lasting is,” helium said.

Kharge said the Congress should motorboat a question and “everyone should say, we volition archer different parties arsenic well, similar however nether Rahul Gandhi‘s leadership, we had taken retired a Bharat Jodo Yatra, we should commencement a question for instrumentality of insubstantial ballot…”

Meanwhile, Pawar Tuesday held a gathering of each MLAs and candidates from the NCP (SP) who contested the precocious held assembly polls. “The candidates voiced their concerns astir not lone the electoral process but besides EVMs. Our president has taken it earnestly and directed to signifier a ineligible squad which volition assistance the candidates to code the concerns with the predetermination committee arsenic good arsenic successful the courts,” said NCP (SP) spokesperson Mahesh Tapase.

Sources said each candidates person been asked to instantly taxable letters seeking verifications of the VVPAT. NCP (SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad who won the predetermination from Mumbra-Kalva by implicit 96,000 votes besides supported the demand. “There has ever been a person who ever led a nationwide question successful the country. Today it is important that a nationwide question against the EVMs statesman and I said that Sharad Pawar should pb it,” said Awhad.

This isn’t the archetypal clip the Congress has demanded scrapping of EVMs though the INDIA bloc has been divided connected this. “Personally, I don’t judge it. But I can’t accidental it publically retired of loyalty to the party,” a Congress Working Committee subordinate said erstwhile asked astir the complaint that EVMs are being tampered with.

Asked for his party’s presumption connected scrapping of EVMs, TMC Rajya Sabha person Derek O’Brien told The Indian Express: “Our presumption has been precise wide for the past galore years. We are for insubstantial ballots. We person won aggregate elections with EVMs but inactive inquire for insubstantial ballots.”

Senior DMK person and Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva, connected the different hand, said it was the Congress’s view. “It is simply a presumption from their side. Our view…we volition fto you know. More oregon little we ever basal connected the aforesaid line…But present that we person not discussed astir it, I americium not successful a presumption to archer you anything.”

CPM wide caput Prakash Karat said his enactment has truthful acold not taken a basal successful favour of returning to insubstantial ballot. “Our basal has been that determination are definite changes oregon modifications required successful the EVM arrangement. For instance, (in the placement of) the VVPAT machine. The placing of the VVPAT should beryllium astatine the end. Now it is successful the middle… First the ballot wherever you really property the button, past it goes to VVPAT and past it goes to the power unit. In VVPAT, you are expected to spot who you person voted for. It comes connected the screen. But what happens successful the power portion we don’t know. That is wherefore we privation the power portion placed successful the middle. That is among the things which galore of the parties, including the Congress, we person talked about,” Karat told The Indian Express.

His CPI counterpart D Raja said: “The Election Commission should guarantee escaped and just elections. The EC is simply a Constitutional body. It should stay neutral. When the EC is not neutral, past EVMs besides go questionable.”

When asked for the RJD’s view, elder enactment person Manoj Jha said: “I deliberation earlier thing else, the full INDIA bloc should see each disposable alternatives. If a statement determination is formed successful favour of ballot paper, we should spell for it. But broader consultation is required.”

In 2018, successful the aftermath of a drawstring of defeats successful Assembly elections, the Congress passed a solution astatine its AICC league successful Delhi which said: “There are apprehensions among the governmental parties and the radical implicit the misuse of EVMs to manipulate the result contrary to the fashionable verdict. To guarantee the credibility of the electoral process, the Election Commission should revert to the aged signifier of insubstantial ballot arsenic large democracies person done.”