Kolkata: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora dismissed Friday West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s demand to bring back ballot papers in place of electronic voting machines (EVM). He said that there is no question of going back to the old system.
Sunil Arora said that the Supreme Court has repeatedly given verdicts against the return of ballot papers.
“We are not going back to the era of ballot papers. The Supreme Court has more than once said that ballot papers are our past,” the CEC told reporters after arriving at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International airport here.
It should be stated here that close to 20 opposition parties had raised questions about the authenticity of the EVMs and had said that the machines can easily be tampered. Mamata Banerjee led the bandwagon along with the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. After the Lok Sabha election results were declared in which the opposition to the BJP had been routed, Mamata had said that EVMs had been tampered with.
Talking on the possibilities of holding elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Sunil Arora said that a formal communication was awaited from the Ministries of Home and Law.
“We are waiting for the formal communication from the Home and Law ministries,” Arora said. “Once it happens, the formal process to hold the elections in Jammu and Kashmir will begin,” added the CEC.
PTI
