New Delhi: A day ahead of an all-party meeting called by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Remote Voting Machines (RVMs), at least 16 political parties of the Congress-led opposition on Sunday opposed the proposal to introduce them . ,
Congress on Sunday held a meeting of opposition parties including Janata Dal (U), Shiv Sena, National Conference, CPI (M), JMM, RJD, PDP, VCK and RUML.
The NCP and the SP did not turn up for the meeting, however, with Congress leader Digvijaya Singh claiming that both the parties expressed a similar stand. Independent MP Kapil Sibal also attended the meeting.
“While unanimously opposing the proposal of Remote Voting Machines, the parties noted that the proposal by the ECI is not tenable. There are huge political inconsistencies and problems in the proposal. The definition of migrant laborers and the number of migrant laborers, all are not very clear. We have unanimously made up our mind to oppose the RVM proposal,” Singh said while briefing the media after the meeting.
“We are extremely grateful to all the political parties who have responded to our request to discuss the ECI’s proposal on Remote Voting Machines,” Singh said.
He said, “We have been asked to give our reply by January 31, so we have decided to meet again on January 25 to send our reply jointly or separately, but our clear mandate and vision is that we will do not support.”
On TMC’s absence, Singh said that we do not yet know the stand of the party, but we will discuss and update about their view.
On the absence of SP and NCP, Singh said Akhilesh Yadav and Sharad Pawar have supported his views, but he still wants complete clarity on RVM.
CPI leader D Raja said all the parties involved in the meeting would take up the issue with the Election Commission on Monday.
ECI has called a meeting for the representatives of political parties to demonstrate the concept of remote EVMs to the overseas voters.
