New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday raised concerns over the integrity of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and demanded that EVMs be replaced with ballot papers. “We don’t want the EVM, we want votes,” he said at a Constitution Day event in the nation’s capital.
The Congress president’s statement came after the party blamed the EVM for the Indian bloc’s recent parliamentary election debacle in Maharashtra.
Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh claimed that the result was “the result of targeted disruption of the level playing field”. His party colleague Pawan Khera also raised concerns over the EVM and said: “In a country where question papers have been leaked, can we blindly trust the machines?”
Khage has publicly expressed concerns about EVM on several occasions. Recently, at an event, he quoted American business tycoon Musk and suggested that such devices could be compromised. “EVM is not used by major Western countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France or Italy,” he said.
Haji, whose party blamed the voting process for Haryana’s defeat, also had back-and-forth exchanges with the Election Commission. The Congress wrote to the pollster alleging a “conspiracy”, mentioned the issue of EVM batteries and listed 20 constituencies where candidates had submitted written submissions regarding EVMs during the counting of votes in Haryana and verbal complaints.
in the recent The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayutthir alliance achieved a decisive victory in the Maharashtra assembly elections, defeating Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in a one-sided contest. Mahayutthi Party swept 230 of the 288 seats, with the BJP winning 132 seats, the Shiv Sena 57 seats and the NCP 41 seats. seats, while the Congress won only 16 seats.
“BJP is a minority government”
Khaq lashed out at the BJP for its “divisive” slogans and said the party was the one who really wanted to divide the people. “If you really want the country to be united, you should stop spreading hatred,” he said. The Congress president also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Constitution, saying that while they surrendered to the holy book, they were “destroying” it.
“Rahul Gandhi also launched the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ to save democracy and the Constitution. In this journey, people across the country joined him and people from all sections of society walked with him,” he said.
“That is not how the Constitution was framed. The Congress party worked very hard to prepare it. Babasaheb Ambedkar Ji made an important contribution in the formulation process,” he added.
Haq also said that the BJP government is unstable and must rely on its alliance partners to maintain operations. “Today, they (BJP) are not in the majority. They are a minority government. They have put one leg of N Chandrababu Naidu of TDP and the other leg of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar together. PM Modi is Walk on these two legs.
Haq also echoed Rahul Gandhi’s statement before Congress leaders, doubling down on the demand for a national caste census and saying “PM Modi is worried about caste census”.
