Most Opposition parties have decided to oppose the Election Commission’s proposal on remote electronic voting machines, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh said on Sunday, according to PTI.
The Congress had on Sunday called for a meeting of Opposition parties to discuss their concerns about the voting machines. On Monday, the Election Commission will show a prototype of the machine to representatives of political parties.
The poll panel has said that the voting machine has been developed to enable domestic migrants to vote in elections without having to travel to their native state or district.
On Sunday, the Janata Dal (United), Shiv Sena, National Conference, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Peoples Democratic Party and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi attended the meeting called by the Congress. Rajya Sabha MP and former Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal also attended the meet, ANI reported.
Singh said that the Nationalist Congress Party and Samajwadi Party also conveyed their views on the matter to him. The Trinamool Congress, however, did not attend the meeting.
The Congress MP told reporters that the political parties who attended the meeting opposed the proposal as it was not concrete.
“There are huge political anomalies and problems in the proposal,” he said. “The definition of migrant labour and the numbers of migrant labour are all not very clear. We have unanimously made up our minds to oppose the proposal of RVM.”
Singh noted that the Election Commission has asked political parties to submit their opinions on the proposal in writing by January 31. He said that due to this, the Opposition leaders have decided to hold another meeting on January 25.
To a question about the TMC’s absence from the meeting, Singh said that the Congress was not yet aware about the stand of the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
The Election Commission said on December 29 that the remote electronic voting machines can handle up to 72 multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth. “The migrant voter would thus need not travel back to his/her home district to exercise his/her franchise of voting,” the poll panel had said.
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