Chintan Shivir: Call to ban EVMs, return to paper ballot among top items on Congress wishlist
Aditi Tandon
Udaipur, May 15
Calls to enlist a ban on electronic voting machines as part of the Congress election manifesto for 2024 General Election and return to paper ballots emerged among top items on the party leaders’ wish list after two days of deliberations at the Chintan Shivir here.
Former Maharashtra chief minister and member of the Shivir panel on politics Prithviraj Chavan said on Sunday that while all leaders agreed that urging the incumbent BJP to ban EVMs was pointless, many of them, including himself, also argued that the Congress poll manifesto for 2024 should pledge to ban EVMs and return to paper ballots, and emphasise the need for the switch.
Leaders said in the panel that Japan and the US had experimented with the EVMs and returned to paper ballots after acknowledging gaps in the functioning of the electronic machines.
Chavan said the political group held extensive discussions on EVMs and their veracity and he personally, along with some other leaders, suggested the party needed to take a position on the issue.
On alliances, the party is likely to moot state specific arrangements to defeat the BJP.
The Congress has also taken cognizance of the fact that the BJP was using actors and other leaders to attack the non-NDA luminaries such as Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar and stressed ways to address this challenge.
In Maharashtra, actor and MP Navneet Rana, MNS chief Raj Thackeray and another actor who recently penned an anti-Sharad Pawar piece, have been attacking the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders on a range of issues including Hanuman Chalisa recitation.
