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Congress MP Randeep Surjewala on Tuesday reiterated the demand of reintroducing paper voting in all elections, asking if Vice Presidential elections can be done through paper ballot, why not general and state elections too.
"BJP and the PM should tell us that if the Vice President election can take place on the ballot paper, then why not the election of MPs and MLAs. If Zilla Parishad election can take place on ballot paper, then why not the election of MPs and MLAs," Surjewala, who is set to vote in the ongoing VP elections, told ANI here. Congress has repeatedly called for reintroducing ballot papers instead of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which are currently in use across the country. Apart the Vice Presidential elections, which uses ballot papers and voting system of having a 'single transferable vote,' the Congress-led Karnataka government recommended to the State Election Commission (SEC) to reintroduce ballot papers for the upcoming local body elections. EVMs were first conceived in 1977, with the prototype developed by Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL), a PSU under the Central government. On May 19, 1982, EVMs were first used on a pilot basis after the ECI issued a directive. The inclusion of Section 61 A in Representation of People's Act by Parliament in 1988 empowered the Election Commission to use EVMs. Subsequently, the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) formed by the Electoral Reforms Committee (ERC) in 1990 recommended the widespread use of EVMs in elections. Eventually, after multiple test runs across various areas, EVMs were used in all 543 parliamentary constituencies in 2004. Speaking on the ongoing Vice Presidential elections, Surjewala said that this is a "fight to safeguard the traditions and decorum of the Constitution." "As far as VP elections are concerned, for Congress and MPs of the entire Opposition, this is a fight for safeguarding the traditions and decorum of the Constitution. For us, this fight is not limited to just casting a vote. This is a fight to save the Parliament's decorum, traditions, values and parameters," he said. The voting for the 15th Vice Presidential election began on Tuesday morning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi exercising his franchise first, along with other prominent ministers and MPs. NDA's CP Radhakrishnan is pitted against joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy. Both the leaders are contesting against each other in a high-stakes election, as it came 50 days after Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his post as the Vice President on July 21, citing health reasons. Several Union Ministers, including Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, JP Nadda, Kiren Rijiju and others cast their vote for the Vice-Presidential elections at the Parliament House. Opposition party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi also cast their vote. Following the voting, the counting of votes will take place this evening at 6 PM. (ANI)
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