Continuing to flog a dead horse, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray today met the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora demanding that the Maharashtra Assembly elections should be conducted through ballot papers in place of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The elections are scheduled to be held later this year.
Thackeray submitted a five-page letter to the CEC claiming that people’s faith in the Election Commission has declined. “Many individuals and organisations have communicated to me their immense dissatisfaction with the manner in which elections are being conducted in the last few years and have raised numerous questions regarding EVMs” Thackeray stated in his letter.
“Our concerns are at two levels, first – regarding EVMs and their use, and second – regarding Lok Sabha 2019 election process”, the letter stated. Thackeray alleged that in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections there are discrepancies in the votes cast and the votes counted in several constituencies. He said that the number of votes counted was higher than the number of votes cast.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Thackeray said that people have doubts in their minds that the votes cast by them do not go to their chosen candidates. “There are doubts in the minds of voters that the votes they cast do not go to their chosen candidates. In such a scenario, the Election Commission should switch back to paper ballots and conduct the Maharashtra state polls through it. We strongly feel that the EVMs can be tampered with”, he said.
Expressing a lack of trust on the EC, Thackeray said that he had zero expectations from the Election Commission. “However, from the reactions of the elections officials, they seemed disinterested on such a serious issue. I have zero expectations from them” he added.
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Thackeray also met United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. They talked about EVM among other things, according to reports.