West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. (File)
As many as 17 opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, are planning to approach the Election Commission demanding that ballot papers be used to conduct next year’s 2019 Lok Sabha election.
“This is a matter on which all opposition parties agreed. We are planning to meet next week. We plan to go to Election Commission and demand that the EC conduct the coming Lok Sabha elections using ballot papers,” TMC leader Derek O’Brien told reporters.
TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who visited Parliament on Wednesday to meet opposition leaders and invite them for her planned mega rally in Kolkata on January 19, took the initiative to gather the support of all opposition parties on the matter.
Banerjee was heard appealing to opposition party leaders who visited her in the TMC office in Parliament, to send a joint delegation to the Election Commission over reports of EVM tampering and to demand that the 2019 general election be held on ballots. “All opposition parties should go to EC on this matter. There should be a joint delegation of opposition parties to EC,” Banerjee was heard telling opposition party leaders, including from the Congress.
Questioning the neutrality of electronic voting machines, the TMC had staged protests outside Parliament and demanded that ballot papers be brought back for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party in West Bengal said it is a “common programme” that will unite all opposition parties.
Interestingly, Banerjee had also urged the Shiv Sena, a BJP ally, to be a part of the delegation. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray previously demanded that the 2019 Lok Sabha election be conducted using ballot papers instead of EVMs.
Last month, the Congress had demanded restoration of the old system of conducting elections through ballot papers to replace the electronic voting machines. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said opposition parties were in agreement that EVMs should be removed and the older system should be brought back so that all parties have “faith in the election system”.
With PTI inputs