KOLKATA: Reiterating that EVM-based Lok Sabha poll results were not a reflection of the popular mandate, the West Bengal Chief Minister on Monday directed all party MLAs and district-level leaders to launch a door-to-door campaign to ‘‘bring back ballot, not EVMs’’.
Trinamool sources said the CM had asked her party members to launch the campaign keeping an eye on the Assembly polls scheduled for 2021.
The CM held a meeting with her party’s MLAs and ministers at the state secretariat on Monday to review the party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle and launched yet another frontal attack on the BJP, accusing it of using money power and resorting to EVM tampering. In her first public appearance two days after the LS election results were declared, Mamata had said would not accept the NDA’s victory.
‘‘My party workers fought well against the BJP’s money power and muscle flexing during the elections. They (BJP) have got only 18 Lok Sabha seats, not even the target of 23, at the mercy of the CPM. They are taking over party offices forcibly because they realised the election results was not the actual reflection of the people’s verdict,’’ said Mamata on Monday.
The Opposition parties have been raising the issue of vulnerability of EVMs, but Mamata is the first among the big political leaders to have questioned the Lok Sabha election results.
“We will run this campaign across the country with all political parties. Even America has done away with it. Only two per cent machines are verified, 98 per cent are not verified. The machines were not working and the ones that were changed were pre-programmed for a party. One lakh machines are missing. EVM voting is not the verdict of people,” said Mamata.
The Bengal CM said there should be a fact-finding committee to find out the reasons behind the EVM glitches during the elections.
‘‘The Trinamool will hold door-to-door campaigns to save democracy and bring back ballot, not the EVMs. The BJP is spreading fake videos to malign the image of the state and we will take out rallies involving youths, students across the, from the hills to the Sunderbans, in protest against it,’’ Mamata said.