Mumbai : Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has asked the State Election Commission to provide all the voters, who would use the EVMs in the assembly elections, with a counterfoil.
If the commission is unable to do that, it should conduct the elections using traditional paper ballots, MPCC has said.
MPCC delegation comprising of MLAs Sharad Ranpise, Sanjay Dutt, spokesperson Sachin Sawant and Yashwant Happe met Chief Election Officer Nitin Gadre on Thursday. They said that the commission had promised before parliamentary elections that counterfoils will be made available for the EVM users. The Supreme Court, in a recent decision, has also favored giving counterfoils. Hence, the commission should act on this or else conduct elections using paper ballot.
The delegation also said that the commission’s decision to bring EVMs from UP and Gujarat is being seen with suspicion and the commission needs to tender explanation in this regard.
Manifesto draft by Sept 5
Meanwhile, the MPCC manifesto committee will finalise its draft manifesto by September 5, party officially have said. A meeting of the committee was chaired by former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde at Tilak Bhavan. Shinde has formed three “sub-groups” entrusting the task of identifying issues concerning Mumbai to city unit chief Janardhan Chandurkar, Maharashtra Health Minister Suresh Shetty will head the sub-group on health-related issues while MLC Anant Gadgil will head the sub-group on youth and youth-related issues, party sources said.
Rajya Sabha MP Balchandra Mungekar has been asked to co-ordinate between all the three sub-groups.
