After the principal Opposition party — Indian National Congress (INC) — passed resolution demanding conduct of general elections through paper ballot, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) apparently got “shot in its arm” as it echoed the same on Saturday by demanding that Election Commission of India (ECI) should immediately convene an all-party meeting on the same issue.
The AAP reiterating its earlier stance has raised questions over the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM's) in general elections once again and has implicitly supported its discontinuation.
The AAP in its bid to make common consensus among the different political parties on the issue, has demanded the Election Commission of India (ECI) to immediately convene an all-party meeting so as to consult all important stakeholders.
The AAP time and again, more so after the results of general elections in States, in which it has to contend with the status of "also-ran", has cried foul on use of the EVM's in elections.
However, with the congress passing a resolution to that affect the AAP has tuned with it seeing in it an opportunity to bolster its stance on issue and an attempt to garner all party support on it.
AAP Chief Spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the Congress, which is the oldest political party in the country , has woke up more than a year after the AAP had "first exposed the dangers posed by EVM's" to the parliamentary democracy of India.
"However, it is still a matter of satisfaction that more and more parties are coming forward to safeguard democracy," he said.
He asserted that ample proof exists which shows that EVM's are not tamper proof. "The conduct of ECI so far on the issue of EVM's has not been fair and it has chosen to impose the EVM's despite ample proof about these machines being not tamper proof and election results can be manipulated," said Bharadwaj.
"The bogus argument of use of technology for fast election results cannot be used as a ploy to bring the parliamentary democracy under threat of rigged elections, particularly when the ECI is not ready to allow its EVM's to be scrutinised for impartiality," he said.