E-Paper
Ajit takes U-turn: ‘Use ballot papers for polls’
The former deputy chief minister’s statement comes a month after he questioned the tendency to blame EVMs for electoral losses.
In a U-turn from his stance over the issue of electronic voting machines (EVM), senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Thursday demanded that the upcoming state Assembly elections be conducted through ballot papers “to repose citizens’ trust in the electoral process”. The former deputy chief minister’s statement comes a month after he questioned the tendency to blame EVMs for electoral losses.
In a tweet on Thursday, Pawar said, “To strengthen democracy and to repose peoples’ faith in the electoral process, the Election Commission of India (ECI) should hold the upcoming state Assembly elections through ballot paper…People have doubts that EVMs can be manipulated. Majority of the developed countries are also holding elections only through ballot paper.”
NCP chief Sharad Pawar and many other Opposition leaders have been opposing the use of EVMs for polling on the ground that they can be rigged. However, Pawar was the only leader in the party who had openly contradicted the NCP chief over the issue and said this should not be used as an excuse for the party’s electoral losses. “In the state Assembly elections held few months back, Congress got success in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. K Chandrashekhar Rao-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi triumphed in Telangana Assembly polls. But Rao’s daughter, K Kavitha, lost the LS polls. So, how could they win the Assembly polls if EVMs can be manipulated,” Pawar had questioned in his address to a party gathering held last month, in the presence of the NCP chief.
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