17 Opposition Parties Plan to Ask Election Commission for Ballot Papers in 2019

A group of 17 opposition parties has agreed to approach the Election Commission together and formally ask that next year’s Lok Sabha election be held with paper ballots instead of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The parties had not yet asked the commission for a date for a meeting.

Who is on board

The parties backing the demand include the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the BSP, the NCP, the RJD, the AAP, the YSR Congress, the DMK, the JD(S), the TDP, Kerala Congress (Mani), the CPI, the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress.

The Congress was to settle its approach at a Congress Working Committee meeting over the weekend, to be followed by a meeting of all the parties at the home of senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday.

Mamata Banerjee’s push

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was credited with building agreement on the issue during a two-day stay in Delhi, where she met leaders of several opposition parties, among them Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. She was in the capital to invite them to a federal front rally planned for January 2019. Meeting leaders at the Trinamool office in Parliament, she urged them to go to the commission as one delegation over reports of EVM tampering. “All opposition parties should go to EC on this matter,” she was heard saying.

Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien told reporters the parties planned to meet the following week and then ask the commission to conduct the Lok Sabha poll on ballot papers.

Background

Several opposition parties have argued since last year that EVMs should be replaced, alleging the machines were manipulated to help the BJP. The demand grew louder after the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election, in which the Samajwadi Party and the BSP suffered heavy losses. Some parties have said that if EVMs are retained, every machine should be paired with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) unit.

In April, the commission told the Supreme Court it would provide VVPAT machines at all polling booths before the 2019 general election. A recent newspaper report, however, said it had met only 22% of its target as of July.

What happened next

The 2019 Lok Sabha election was held between 11 April and 19 May 2019, with votes counted on 23 May. The BJP won 303 of the 543 seats and the Congress 52, and Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term on 30 May 2019.

See also: Elections

Originally published on 3 August 2018. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us