Still licking her wounds from a shocking setback at the hustings, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to draw a new battle line with the BJP over what it calls the “mischievous” electronic voting machines.
The move is likely to rejuvenate a despondent posse of Trinamool Congress foot soldiers as Banerjee is likely to demand the return of ballot papers in place of EVMs which the TMC has officially made the real villain for her party’s colossal loss in the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
Cum July 21 — observed every year as TMC martyrs’ day — Banerjee is likely to attack the EVM and behind it a “conspiring” BJP and an allegedly partisan Election Commission for the loss the Bengal ruling outfit had to suffer in the elections.
Out of 42 seats the TMC won 22 while the BJP clinched 18, ending a close second in at least five more. While the Congress managed to retain two seats the Left Front won none even as 22.5 percent of its 30 percent vote switching right-wards.
According to inside sources the TMC chief is likely to give a call for a movement against EVMs from the July 21 rally.
“This year the rally will break all the records because,” said senior party leader and Minister Jyotipriya Mullick adding the district level leaders have been working for weeks to organize the rank and file and bring them to the Kolkata rally where the Chief Minister will tell them how the EVMs were doctored to play the spoilsport.
“The people are eager to listen to what the Chief Minister has to say about the electoral loss,” another senior leader from North 24 Parganas said adding the Chief Minister will start a prolonged battle against the EVMs.
Banerjee has told on a number of occasions inside the party how EVMs can be tampered and how in many western countries they have returned to the age-old ballot boxes.