New Delhi, Aug. 26 (IANS): Many opposition parties will reiterate their demand for paper ballots for future elections, among other things, in a meeting with the Election Commission of India (EC) on Monday.
The EC has called the meeting with seven national and 51 state recognised political parties to discuss various electoral issues such as electoral rolls, limiting political parties’ expenditure and timely submission of annual audited reports by parties among other things.
At least 17 parties, including the NDA ally Shiv Sena, have been pitching for returning to ballot papers.
These include the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nationalist Congress
Party (NCP), Samajwadi Party, CPI-M, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), DMK, CPI, YSR Congress, Kerala Congress Mani (KCM) and AIUDF.
“We will raise the issue of ballot papers in the meeting for fair and impartial elections. We want to make it clear that we do not consider EVMs as tamper proof,” an opposition leader told IANS.
Although the EC in its official agenda of the meet released to the press has not mentioned simultaneous polls, the issue is likely to come up for discussion.
