Mayawati Das, the President of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP,) took to Twitter and shared her reason for not attending the all party meeting organised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On the 19th of June, Ms. Das took to Twitter and said, “The official insistence on elections through EVMs instead of the ballot paper is a real threat to the democracy and the Constitution of the country. The public’s confidence in EVMs has come down to alarming levels. So, if a meeting had been convened today to look into this dormant problem, I must have been involved in that (sic.)”
बैलेट पेपर के बजाए ईवीएम के माध्यम से चुनाव की सरकारी जिद से देश के लोकतंत्र व संविधान को असली खतरे का सामना है। ईवीएम के प्रति जनता का विश्वास चिन्ताजनक स्तर तक घट गया है। ऐसे में इस घातक समस्या पर विचार करने हेतु अगर आज की बैठक बुलाई गई होती तो मैं अवश्य ही उसमें शामिल होती।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) June 19, 2019
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an all party meeting with an agenda to discuss ‘One Nation, One Election’ and other issues with the chiefs of all the political parties in India.
Mayawati Das is disappointed with the Election Commission of India (ECI,) which counted the votes using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs,) instead of ballot papers.
Opposition parties such as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP,) the Trinamool Congress (TMC,) the Samajwadi Party (SP,) the BSP and the Indian National Congress (INC) together appealed to the ECI to count 50 % of the votes using Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT.)
However, the ECI rejected the appeal and counted the votes of the Lok Sabha elections using EVMs.
Apart from Mayawati Das, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, will also not attend the all party meeting.
Ms. Banerjee, on the 18th of June, sent a response to Prahlad Joshi, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister and said, “A proper response on such a sensitive and serious subject like the “One Country, one election” in such a short time would not do justice to the subject it deserves. The matter requires consultations with constitutional experts, elections experts and above all the party members.”
She further wrote, “Instead of doing the matter hurriedly, I would request you to kindly circulate a White Paper on the subject to all political parties inviting their views by providing adequate time. If you only do so, we will be able to give concrete suggestions on this important subject.”
The all party meeting is scheduled to be held on the 19th of June at the Parliamentary Library building in Delhi.
Stay tuned for further updates.
