Opposition parties to meet in Delhi ahead of budget session

Ahead of the budget session of Parliament, major opposition parties are likely to meet in Delhi to discuss the issue of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the wake of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) landslide win in the Lok Sabha elections, senior leaders said on Tuesday.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee discussed the matter in her party’s review meeting on Monday. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also started internal discussion on the issue. The Congress wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call an all-party meeting to discuss the possibility of reverting to the old system of ballot paper voting.

The BJP stormed back to power, winning 303 seats in the April-May general election. The party also registered its best performance in West Bengal, bagging 18 out of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats. It had won just two seats in the state in 2014.

“There is an overwhelming majority among the opposition parties who are apprehensive about many features of the EVM. But being someone who led many delegations to the Election Commission, especially during the last two months over several issues including the EVMs, I can say that the ruling party should also re-think its position and consider an all-party meeting to discuss the possibilities of reverting to ballot papers in future,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi.

The Opposition had been vocal about the EVMs for the past few years, especially after the BJP came to power in 2014. On several occasions, they had raised doubts over the way the EVM functions even as the poll watchdog maintained their stand that the EVMs are tamper-proof. The EC had even challenged the political parties to prove how EVMs can be tampered but many parties skipped it.

Senior opposition leaders said that a meeting is expected to take place in this regard in Delhi ahead of the budget session, scheduled for June 17-July 27. They may also take a call on whether to make this a common issue for them to raise in the first session of the new Lok Sabha.

In addition, the parties are likely to raise the agrarian crisis, alleged attack on institutions, among others, in the next session.

At a meeting in Kolkata on Monday, Banerjee told her party colleagues that they must mount pressure on the EC to revert to the paper ballots, which were scrapped before the 1999 elections. “During the polling, many EVMs were replaced. We suspect foul play. We don’t consider the poll results of the EVM as the mandate of the people,” Banerjee said and announced that she would launch a major agitation to bring back ballot papers.

Trinamool’s arch rival, the CPI(M), also feels that there are several discrepancies in the EVMs even as it is yet to commit itself to demand ballot boxes. CPI(M) politburo member Nilotpal Basu said on Tuesday, “Our party is discussing the issue internally. All I can say now is that the EVM process should be beyond any distrust and apprehension.”

First Published: Jun 05, 2019 00:54 IST