NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday made a strong pitch for return to ballot papers as he alleged that “Maharashtra election was a fraud like never before aimed at destroying democracy.” His remarks evoked a strong retort from the BJP which claimed that the Congress had “conditional commitment” to Constitution.
“The whole world is moving from EVMs to ballot paper but we are using EVMs. This is all fraud. They ask us to prove it. You have devised such techniques that benefit the ruling party and put the opposition at a disadvantage. The youngsters of this country will rise and say – we want ballot paper,” Kharge said at the AICC session in Ahmedabad.
“What happened in Maharashtra. We raised the issue everywhere, Rahul Gandhi raised the issue strongly. What kind of voter list they made. Maharashtra election was a fraud. The same thing happened in Haryana,” the Congress president alleged and pointed out that the BJP won 90 per cent of the seats which had never happened before.
The Congress president claimed that they will get to the bottom of the alleged fraud. “We will find out about it. The thief always gets caught. Our lawyers and leaders are working for it. We are trying that,” he said.
The BJP reacted strongly to Kharge’s remarks. BJP leader and party spokesperson Shehjad Poonawala took swipes at the Congress chief.
“Kharge says that ECI, EVM are all fake. When you win in Telangana, then EVM was fine. When you win in Karnataka, then EVM is fine. When you win election in any state, EVM is fine. But when you lose Maharashtra, Haryana or Centre, EVM becomes faulty. This is called condidtional commitment to Constitution,” Poonawala said.
The BJP leader accused Congress of double standards on Constitution.
“Congress keeps talking about Constitution but has no trust in it and has conditional commitment to it. Congress believes in ‘parivartantra’ (nepotism) and not the agencies of ‘loktantra’ (democracy),” Poonawala said.
“Similarly, when you win court cases, then Supreme Court is fine or else you will abuse the apex court. Government agencies are fine when there are no corruption cases running on your members but when things are not running in your favour, you say that these agencies have completely collapsed,” he said.
Poonawalla said that while India’s election process and EVMs are being praised across the world, Congress keeps criticising them. “Going to another country and insulting the nation while countries across the world including Europe and America are praising are the election commission and EVM. Even Shashi Tharoor agreed but Kharge and Congress party continues to question EVM. Rahul Gandhi had said he wants to fight the Indian state and the agencies associated with the Indian state including judiciary, armed forces or the election commission,” the BJP leader said.
