Anti-EVM clamour: Post poll debacle, MVA demands return to ballot paper voting

Mumbai/New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): Reviving from the trauma of the unexpected and stunning rout in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) clamoured again for an end to Electronic Voting Machines and a return to the traditional ballot paper polling in future elections, on Tuesday.

The demand came significantly during the 75th Constitution Day celebrations being held all over India to hail its Chief Architect Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and to stress the importance of the Charter.

MVA top leaders including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge raised the ballot paper issue in New Delhi, while Nationalist Congress Party (SP) National General Secretary Dr Jitendra Awhad and Shiv Sena’s (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut expressed serious doubts over EVMs in Mumbai.

The alliance is also exploring legal avenues, filing pleas with the Election Commission of India and launching a nationwide public movement for going back to ballot paper voting.

At the Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan in the national capital, which was attended by Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other bigwigs, Kharge said that whatever strengths the MVA had deployed in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, “their votes are disappearing”.

“Forget these EVMs, we want nothing to do with it… We want only paper ballot voting. Then you (the ruling party) will realise where they stand,” thundered Kharge.

He called upon all the political parties to work for a national movement like the Bharat Jodo Yatras of Rahul Gandhi with a single theme to ‘bring back ballot paper’.

Awhad and NCP (SP) MLA Rohit R. Pawar, plus Raut and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Spokesperson Kishore Tiwari offered a piece of their minds citing figures to buttress their claims on how the MVA suffered reverses in the state polls ostensibly due to EVMs manipulation.

“I am speaking not just as an NCP (SP) or MVA leader, but even as a common man… People are questioning us wherever we go… They are unable to understand how their votes and sentiments are not reflected in the final outcome,” Awhad pointed out.

Raut has said repeatedly that “this cannot be the mandate of the people of Maharashtra” and “this outcome is not acceptable to us at all,” and wondered -- when PM Narendra Modi is shifting all industries from the state to Gujarat -- why would people still vote for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“An election fraud of this magnitude must never have taken place anywhere in the world…The state election results are shocking. No one anticipated such outcomes. If anyone is responsible for all this, it is (ex) Chief Justice of India D. Y Chandrachud. History will never forgive him,” growled Raut.

Chaturvedi has sought the ECI and Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to explain the glaring discrepancies found in the votes polled and counted in 95 (out of 288) Assembly constituencies.

Citing official data, Rohit Pawar questioned how the votes polled by the winning candidates in the Assembly seats in Nashik district were nearly the same and asked the ECI and CEO to clarify if it was true or not.

“What exactly are they trying to hide, or have they taken up the task of destroying democracy? The common masses want answers to these and many other questions… We expect an early reply,” said Rohit Pawar.

Tiwari said that as per the ECI, the final voter turnout was 66.05 per cent, or 6,40,88,195 total votes cast, but the votes counted were 6,45,92,508 – or a whopping 504,313 excess.

“From where did the extra votes come, why the difference in both the figures, where did these additional votes go, and how did this happen despite the so-called advanced technology deployed? The masses have doubts about the entire (state) election process,” said Tiwari.

Simultaneously, the MVA parties in their internal meetings with the victorious and vanquished candidates are understood to have discussed the need to raise mass awareness and action vis-a-vis EVMs.

Several MVA leaders including Communist Party of India’s (Marxist) Narsayya N. Adam, who lost from Solapur City Central, have demanded that the ECI should cancel the just-held Assembly elections and announce fresh polling in the state.