The Opposition parties — Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI -M) — have demanded voting through ballot paper in Ater and Bandh-avgarh Assembly Constitue-ncies where bypoll is scheduled on April 9. They also sought the removal of Chief Electoral Officer of the State.
leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Ajay Singh in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Saturday said, “The Credibility of the VVPAT-EVMs and the Chief Election Officer (CEO) for Madhya Pradesh has gone doubtful. During the demo of VVPAT for Ater constituency, carried out in the presence of CEO Celina Singh, BJP’s lotus symbol was displayed though two different buttons were pressed. After that the CEO threatened the journalists that if this is printed or shown on television, they would be put in jail.”
Singh further said that we now doubt that a free and fair election could be possible in Ater and Bandhavgarh as the interest of the CEO seems towards one particular party. Also, the questions raised earlier over the EVMs also gets affirmed by the Friday's incidence.
“In these circumstances it is requested to seriously consider our demand of conducting the by-polls through ballot paper and replace the CEO so that fair elections could be conducted,” he added.
Meanwhile, the AAP staged demonstration at the Election Commission office here in Bhopal and demanded that voting through EVMs should be ended and ballot paper be re-introduced. The AAP alleged that the CEO of Madhya Pradesh is working on directives of the BJP and demanded her removal.
CPI-M State Secretary in a letter to CEC sasid that the serious questions raised over role of EVMs in Uttar Pradesh elections are still unanswered and the Ater incidence affirms the doubts raised on EVMs.
“We want the CEO to be removed and the EVMs to be used in the by-elections should be tested publicly and only faultless EVMs should be used for the polls,” said the CPI-M State Secretary.