The world conducts elections with ballots, so why not India: Digvijaya Singh

New Delhi [India], Apr. 1 (ANI): Asserting that he had never put his faith in Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in the first place, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Saturday asserted that India should embrace ballots for its elections to ensure a fair voting process. "I have never put my faith in EVM machines. You never know where the vote goes once the button is pressed. Which is that when elections are being conducted with across the world with ballots, that India is not keen? I stand with Advani ji, Mayawati and Kejriwal that EVMs should not be held. The next State Assembly Elections should not have EVMs," Digvijaya told the media here after the Congress delegation's meeting with the Election Commission. Meanwhile , the Congress has conveyed to the poll panel that there is an extraordinary suspicion about the fairness of the EVM machines post recently conducted elections- specially Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, adding that apparently the polling in these stated did not "reflect the public mood and confidence as noticed by national parties. The Congress has also appealed to the Election Commission to direct impartial and unimpeachable experts to revisit and re-verify the authenticity of all voting machines being deployed in the two-by elections in Madhya Pradesh, which must be done transparently in the presence of authorized representatives of political parties. "In the face of the revelation about tempering of EVMs, it is necessary that the entire process should be re-examined thoroughly and all agencies and persons involved in maintenance, operationalisation and data feeding in the machines and all other performing duties and responsibilities including storage before use of EVMs in further elections and all parties should be taken in confidence for the credibility and viability of the use of EVMs or to revert back to the all systems of the ballot papers," the Congress said in a statement. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also met Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi to discuss the EVM tampering issue. "We have been saying that the EVMs were tempered. Are the elections in this nation being conducted fairly? Are people casting their votes or machines itself deciding it?" Kejriwal said addressing media after meeting Election Commission. He further alleged that the software in the machines was changed, so that when the voters press any button it will only lead to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Calling for tampering-free elections, Kejriwal said that machines have not been checked which raises a big question mark on democracy. Defying the Election Commission's claim that machines cannot be tempered, he said they are being tempered at large scale. Earlier today, The Election Commission ordered an inquiry into reports that the EVMs in Madhya Pradesh were malfunctioning, and also sought a report about the incident where the voter-verifiable paper audit trail machine generated an acknowledgment slip with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) symbol even though the chief electoral officer had pressed the button for the Samajwadi Party candidate during a demonstration exercise. (ANI)