Will launch campaign for return to ballot papers, says Mamata Banerjee

Raking up the EVM issue once again, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said her party will launch a campaign to bring back the system of ballot paper in a bid to save democracy in the country. She also urged the opposition parties to unitedly demand the same.

While speaking to reporters at the state secretariat, the TMC chief accused the BJP of using “money, muscle, institutions, media and the government” to win the Lok Sabha election.

“Our workers fought boldly in this election. They (BJP) got 18 seats (in Bengal) misusing money, muscle, government, communal and media power. They had targeted 23 seats and maybe the EVMs were pre-programmed in favour of them,” she claimed.

Announcing her party’s upcoming programmes, she said, “We are starting a movement ‘Save Democracy, Bring Back Ballots’. We do not want (electronic voting) machines. We want ballots to save democracy. We will launch the campaign from Bengal and will spread the message across the country. We are also appealing to the Opposition parties to raise their voices in favour of ballots.”

Claiming that the real mandate of the people did not reflect in the election results, she said, “How do you prove that there was no pre-planned programming? The Election Commission should have supervised it, but they did not. Many of the EVMs were replaced during the election without conducting mock polls on them. Who knows that the replaced EVMs were not programmed?” Banerjee said.

“The verdict was not spontaneous and the BJP’s victory was because people supported them. It was through an artificial mechanism and that is why they have been trying to capture the party offices,” she added.

Banerjee said that her party would organise public relation marches across the state ahead of the TMC’s annual Martyrs’ Day rally on July 21. “Our leaders and workers will conduct door to door campaign and later launch public relation activities. We will start from the booth level and then take it across the state,” she said.