TMC demands return of ballot papers

Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday accused the BJP of having won the Lok Sabha elections through manipulations in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and demanded back the system of holding elections through ballot papers.

“There is a doubt about the results of the elections. How come the BJP president one day before the (Lok Sabha election) results came said that we shall get 300 seats. And, he (BJP) got 303 seats. There was EVM fraud and manipulations. I demand that ballot papers should be brought back,” Roy said in the Lok Sabha.

Speaking on the motion of thanks to the President's speech, the TMC leader accused the Modi 2.0 government and the BJP of pushing “it's communal agenda” and dividing people on the lines of religion.

Roy categorically opposed the Motion of Thanks to President's address moved by the government, saying he (the President) had picked up “divisive points” in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament and had made no mention of the “fundamental problems” of the people, reference to secularism and name of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

“The president 's address should not have included the divisive points. They are talking of triple talaq. The entire Muslim community is opposed to it. But, they will do it because society has to be divided. No mention of Nehru in his speech,” the TMC leader said.

He alleged that there was no mention of secularism and Nehru's name in the President address “because they belong to the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS).”

“The RSS did not participate in the freedom struggle and was banned in connection with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. It is a matter of sorrow for us that the same RSS' former pracharak is the Prime Minister of the country who only talks big,” Roy said without taking the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Earlier in the morning, the TMC leaders staged a protest near Gandhi Statue in Parliament House, pressing for a return to ballot papers, alleging hacking of these machines in favour of the BJP.

"EVMs can be hacked, everybody knows that. This should stop and that's why we demand a return to ballot papers," TMC chief whip in Lok Sabha Kalyan Banerjee told reporters after the protest.