India’s Opposition parties on Wednesday demanded that paper ballots replace electronic voting machines (EVMs), announcing a five-point programme aimed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The announcement followed a three-and-a-half-hour strategy meeting of the INDIA bloc.
The alliance accuses the CEC and the government of manipulating voter rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, in order to subvert electoral integrity, reports Hindustan Times.
“Everyone has decided to fight together in a united manner,” declared Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. He said all the leaders present “100% agreed that instead of EVMs, paper ballots should be used”. He also called for recent changes to election law to be reversed. A Congress leader said this was a reference to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants legal immunity to the CEC and Election Commissioners.
Kharge compared the SIR deletions to the 2016 ban on high-value currency notes. “Modi and Shah are treating the Election Commission of India as their puppet. They are winning elections by deceit,” he said. “First, Modi did notebandi; now he is doing votebandi to rob citizens of their rights.”
He had made the same comparison between the SIR and the government’s 2016 demonetisation decision at Tuesday’s Congress Working Committee meeting.
However, an analysis of SIR deletions by constituency by HT has found no correlation with election outcomes, and some deletions were caused by death and migration. Even so, the removal of millions of voters from the draft rolls has fuelled public anxiety. In Delhi, 33% of the union territory’s 14.5 million voters were excluded.
A stir was also caused last week by Indian Express revelations that two election commissioners had disagreed with some decisions, and that the central database of electors was not accessible to the on-ground officers tasked with adding and deleting names. The Election Commission has since clarified that all decisions were unanimous, based on the majority, and has modified the SIR process to reduce inconvenience to voters.
Under the five-point programme, Kharge said INDIA bloc leaders would organise “Save Democracy” marches across the country from October 2 to 8. These would involve the general public, young people and “everyone who believe in democracy and unity”, he said.
Opposition MPs from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will march to the Election Commission on October 6, and all parties will be invited to join.
“Leaders of Opposition also will seek appointment from President of India to give a representation on our problems and against the chori ki sarkar (govt with a stolen mandate),” Kharge added.
The programme also includes five big rallies to reach out to the public, one of them in Delhi on November 1. In addition, the Opposition will write to the judiciary to ask that cases relating to the SIR and electoral malpractice be expedited.
Kharge praised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his campaign against vote chori, saying people had earlier not believed the point but now all realised he had been right.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said all the parties agreed that Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and CEC Kumar had assaulted Indian democracy. He said the Opposition had succeeded in putting across its concern about election manipulation, and promised change. “The Opposition leaders are colective defenders. We will make serious changes in the country,” Gandhi added.
Mamata Banerjee said Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav were the first to speak about vote chori, referring to a rally the two addressed in Bihar last year. “Vanish (Gyanesh) Kumar chor hai, daaku hai. He should resign immediately. Let us save democracy and let the security of voting right be restored. If votes are stolen, then how can country run,” Banerjee asked. Sonia Gandhi was later seen praising her for the fiery speech.
Banerjee also questioned ERONET, the Election Commission software that processes enumeration forms and tries to match a current elector with a corresponding entry in the base rolls. She said the Opposition was ready to fight Modi.
