New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday once again raised the issue of tempering in electronic voting machines (EVMs) and said that the results in UP and Uttarakhand amounted to the “murder of democracy”.
Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, she dared the BJP to hold Assembly elections in UP using paper ballots if it was confident of the people’s mandate, and demanded a law to scrap the use of EVMs in elections.
The BSP had given a notice under rule 267 seeking the suspension of business to take up the issue, which the Chair rejected.
Ms Mayawati said that when the Congress was in power, senior BJP leaders had expressed apprehensions on the use of EVMs, saying free and fair elections could not happen using EVMs. Now that the BJP is in government, she said, they are now justifying EVMs and added that major democracies in the world use paper ballot for casting votes.
Ms Mayawati alleged that votes cast in her party’s favour were credited to the BJP by faulty or tampered EVMs.
“If your conscience is so clear, why not call for elections (again) using paper ballot,” she said amid slogan shouting by treasury benches to counter her.
