The Congress is giving a serious thought to opposing the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the next Lok Sabha polls in 2024 and demanding the restoration of the paper ballot system.
The party deliberated upon the issue in one of the closed-door meetings at the Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir.
Sources said senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan raised the issue during the deliberations in the party's panel on political issues at the three-day 'Chintan Shivir'.
"A lot of talk took place on EVM and the way fraud is taking place. It is my personal opinion that (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi will not change anything even if we petition or request him. There is only one option -- we will have to defeat him and have to write in our manifesto that we will remove EVMs and go back to paper ballots.... Can't do anything before that,” the former Maharashtra Chief Minister remarked in his address to the group.
The party could even promise the restoration of the ballot paper system of voting in its manifesto, sources said.
While Congress has remained neutral in its stand on the EVMs even after successive electoral loss, regional parties have from time to time raked up the issue questioning the authenticity of the EVMs.
The BSP, SP, RJD and AAP have on many occasions vented their opposition against the EVMs and some parties also held a hackathon challenge to prove that the EVMs can be hacked and tampered to suit results in favour of the ruling party. The claims remained unsubstantiated though. The Election Commission of India has categorically asserted that the EVMs in use in India can neither be hacked nor be hacked.
AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had accused the BJP of “programming” the electronic voting machines to win the polls and said the Opposition parties will carry out a nationwide campaign on discrepancies in EVMs.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, leaders of Opposition parties had even moved the Supreme Court demanding verification of at least 50% of votes cast in the Lok Sabha elections against the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail slips.
Leaders of 21 Opposition parties, including the Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) had also jointly addressed a press conference in Delhi in April 2019 to highlight matters regarding transparency in the election process and protection of voter rights, and gave a call to “save democracy”.
While Naidu cited examples from countries like Germany, The Netherlands and Ireland which have chosen to go back to using paper ballots in their elections, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said there was a “serious question mark” on the election process.