Several leaders of the Opposition who participated in the rally here on Saturday, raised concern on the use of electronic voting machines (EVM). At a press conference later in the day, a four-member committee was formed to look into the malfunctioning of these machines
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the panel comprised Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Satish Mishra of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal.
To hold meetings
The committee will meet representatives of the Election Commission and will press on wider use of voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs).
The first leader to raise the issue was former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who called the EVM a chor machine (a machine that steals votes). “The EVM is a chor machine. Honestly speaking, it is so. Its use must be put to an end. Nowhere in the world is the machine used,” he said.
Later, at the press conference, he said that there was little time time left before the country went to the polls and the EC should carry out reforms expeditiously for the sake of democracy.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu also raised the issue. “EVM is a big fraud. No other nation has the EVM. So we have to go back to paper ballot,” Mr. Naidu said.
Mr. Singhvi, a Rajya Sabha member, pressed for greater use of VVPAT machines. “We are not asking for returning to the physical ballot system immediately,” he said.
