Digvijaya Singh voices concern over EVMs after Congress’ Haryana debacle

Indore: Days after the BJP shocked Congress by winning the Haryana assembly elections, Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh said that the present Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) system had taken away his constitutional right to vote.

He asserted that the Congress had won the majority of seats in Haryana's assembly elections using postal ballots, just as it had in Madhya Pradesh.

"I am a voter and it is my constitutional right that my vote should go to the candidate of my choice. I should put the ballot paper in the ballot box with my hand and in this way, the votes cast should be counted 100 per cent. This is my constitutional right which has been taken away by the current system of EVMs," Singh told reporters on Friday.

Singh has raised questions about the authenticity of votes cast through EVMs on several occasions in the past.

The Congress leader claimed that in the MP polls in November 2023, his party won 199 out of the 230 seats in the counting of postal ballots, but it could get only 66 seats after the counting of votes cast through EVMs.

In the postal ballot system, the distribution of ballot papers and the return of the marked ballot is done by post.

In Haryana, the Congress won 76 of the 90 seats in the counting of postal ballots.

However, the party's seat count came down to 37 in the counting of votes recorded by EVMs, he said.

The Congress leader said propaganda is being run about the country's Muslim population.

"You can see the population figures (in the last decades). The population of Muslims in the country is declining more rapidly than that of Hindus," said the former MP chief minister.

He also advocated a caste-based census and socio-economic survey in the country.

These steps will provide accurate information about the socio-economic backwardness of various castes and sub-castes.

Based on this information, plans for their development could be worked out, he said.

Responding to a question, Singh said he agrees with the demand for 'Bharat Ratna', the nation's highest civilian award, for industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata, who died on Wednesday.

Singh also said that it is not possible to implement the concept of 'one nation, one election' in India's current parliamentary politics.

With PTI inputs