MNS launches door-to-door campaign against EVMs

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Friday announced its campaign against electronic voting machines (EVMs).

The party will be conducting a door-to-door survey to galvanise people to support its demand to do away with EVMs. The survey forms would later be submitted to the Election Commission, in an attempt to pressurise the poll body to accept ballot papers.

The party  organised a meeting with party workers in Mumbai, where its chief Raj Thackeray targeted the Union government over the alleged tampering of EVMs.

Training his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, Mr Thackeray said that the duo did not have the right to decide the way people could vote.

While reiterating his opposition to EVMs, Mr Thackeray raised the issue of alleged “phantom votes” in at least 371 Lok Sabha constituencies. “Why cannot we use ballot papers for elections when so many people have raised questions over the functioning of EVMs,” Mr Thackeray asked his supporters.

Batting for ballot papers in elections, Mr Thackeray also tried to downplay concerns flagged by the election commission, suggesting that it did not matter to him if they take two days to count votes.

Moreover, he taunted the BJP over the Ram Temple issue, “They cannot behave like Lord Ram but they still want a temple in his name.”