17 Opp parties to approach EC for ballot battle

Making it clear that the reintroduction of paper ballots in place of EVMs will be a major agenda ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha polls, as many as 17 political parties have decided to approach the Election Commission (EC).

Congress and other opposition parties have been alleging that EVMs were tampered during polls and demanding reintroduction of the ballot paper system of voting. Those on board for the ballot system include SP, BSP, AAP, NCP, RJD, AAP, YSR, DMK, JD(S), TDP, Kerala Congress Mani, Left parties CPI and CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress.

The 17 Opposition parties would meet next week to discuss their plan for their anti-EVM campaign. First, Congress will discuss the issue at a meeting of its highest decision making body — Congress Working Committee — this weekend. This will be followed by an all-party meeting at senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s house on Monday.

The initiative to solicit the support of all Opposition parties on the matter was taken by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday, when she visited Parliament to meet all Opposition leaders to invite them for her planned rally in Kolkata on January 19. Mamata met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi amid the National Register of Citizens (NRC) row.

Mamata was heard appealing to all 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,” Mamata said.

“This is a matter on which all Opposition parties agreed. We are planning to meet next week. We plan to go to the Election Commission and demand that the EC conduct the coming Lok Sabha elections on ballot papers,” TMC leader Derek O’Brien told reporters.

 TMC had staged protests outside Parliament, questioning the neutrality of EVMs, and demanded that ballot papers be brought back for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The ruling party in West Bengal said it is a “common programme” that will unite all Opposition parties.

Interestingly, Mamata had also urged 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 on ballot papers instead of EVMs.

The demand had gained momentum after 2017, when Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s BSP suffered huge reverses in the Uttar Pradesh elections, leading them to contend that EVMs were tampered to help the BJP. Some parties have also said that if EVMs are to be used, the ECI should ensure that they are all equipped with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.

In April this year, the EC had told the Supreme Court that it would introduce VVPAT machines on all polling booths across the country ahead of the 2019 general election.