Once bitten twice shy. Taking lessons from the allegations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) by the non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political parties of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the recently held Assembly elections, the Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh has started demanding voting through ballot paper in next year’s Assembly polls in the State. The grand old party putting a step forward in this direction is going to hold demonstration and public meeting in the state capital Bhopal on Monday.
Former Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Arif Masood in a statement here on Sunday informed that demanding voting through ballot paper a demonstration would be held at the Budhwara Square of the city on Monday at 2 pm. This would be followed by a public meeting that would be addressed by the senior party leaders including him, he added.
Masood Said, “We are demanding voting through ballot paper in the next assembly elections of the state because complaints of large scale EVM tampering are coming from UP. Almost all the political parties in UP have alleged that tampering in EVM was done to provide benefits to BJP, this is a serious issue and needs to be resolved before next assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and other states.”
Masood further said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) in order to maintain its credibility should go for voting through ballot paper in the next assembly and general elections. “A memorandum addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India demanding voting through ballot paper would also be handed over to State Chief Election Commissioner after the demonstration and public meeting on Monday,” Masood added. He said that during the 2013 assembly election of MP similar complaints of tampering with EVM were reported to the ECI and in few they were found to be correct and re-poll was ordered but that’s not the solution. The only solution to the issue is polling through ballot paper, he added.