Mumbai: Calling opposition to electronic voting machines (EVMs) ‘sedition’, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday alleged that opposition parties were trying to create a public opinion against voting machines and the Election Commission.
‘The Supreme Court has called public opinion against the institutions created by the constitution as treason. Claiming that those institutions are wrong is considered treason. The opposition parties are doing it every day. This is absolutely wrong,” Fadnavis said while speaking in the Maharashtra Assembly.
Responding to the debate in the Legislative Assembly on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his joint address to both the Houses of the State Legislature, the CM took a potshot at the opposition parties. He said, ‘Now a new system has been implemented. If the election results are in our favor, it is a victory for the people’s mandate and democracy. But if the result goes against us, blame the EVMs and Election Commission and call it the murder of democracy. This is the lack of trust shown towards the constitution and the bodies created by the constitution. It is an insult to the people and the constitution that gave them the right to vote.”
Fadnavis asked the opposition to introspect and accept the people’s mandate in the Assembly elections instead of blaming EVMs. “EVM means ‘every vote for Maharashtra’ that we got,” he said.
Testing of EVMs began on August 6, 1980 and the devices were first used in 1992. These machines were used in all Lok Sabha constituencies in 2004, he said. The Congress won the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the CM said. Later, ECI asked political parties to show how EVMs can be tampered with. But no one stepped forward, he said.
“In the assembly elections, we destroyed your fake story spread during the Lok Sabha polls. We introspected after the Lok Sabha election defeat and worked hard to counter your fake story. We did not blame EVMs, but worked hard for the assembly elections,” the Chief Minister said.