Opposition "unanimously" opposed Election Commission's proposal of Remote Voting Machine, says Digvijay Singh

New Delhi [India], January 15 : Congress on Sunday called an all-party meeting to discuss Remote Voting Machines (RVM) and all the political parties unanimously opposed the proposal of RVM by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The meeting was held a day ahead of the national parties' Election Commission meeting.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh chaired the meeting.
Addressing a press conference, Digvijay Singh said, "We are extremely grateful to all the political parties who have responded to our requests to meet and discuss about the proposal of the ECI on the remote voting machine. The political parties which attended were JDU, Shiv Sena, National Conference, CPI-M, JMM, RJD, PDP, VCK, RUML, and Kapil Sibal. NCP and SP have conveyed their views to me."
"The overall view of all political parties who attended today, unanimously opposed the proposal of Remote Voting Machine because it is still very sketchy, the proposal is not concrete. There are huge political anomalies and problems in the proposal. The definition of migrant labour and the numbers of migrant labour are all not very clear. We have unanimously made up our minds to oppose the proposal of RVM," said Singh.
"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 view is that we don't support RVM," he added.
On TMC's absence, Singh said we are not yet aware of the stand of the party but will discuss and update about their view.
On SP and NCP's absence, senior congress leader Digvijay Singh said Akhilesh Yadav and Sharad Pawar have given consent but they still want to get full clarity on RVM.
CPI leader D Raja mentioned all those parties who attended today's meeting will raise the issue with the Election commission tomorrow.
The leaders also revealed that on 25 January to deliberate on the same issue and get further consensus.
Today BSP supremo Mayawati also raised the issue of EVM credibility and when asked about Mayawati's absence in the meeting Digvijay said, "one end she is questioning the EVM. and other ends not joining it. Every party is entitled to its view."
A meeting of sixteen opposition parties was held in Constitution Club in Delhi to discuss the joint strategy for tomorrow's meeting convened by the Election Commission of India.
The meeting was facilitated by the Congress party.
ECI has called the meeting to demonstrate the concept of Remote EVMs for migrant voters to the representatives of political parties.
Singh told that in the meeting held today, "the participant opposition parties deliberated on the questions to be placed before ECI regarding REVMs. It was decided that the ECI's response to the questions raised by the parties in tomorrow's meeting will be collectively be considered later and the opposition parties will take a joint stand on the issue."
He also told that though Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party were not present in today's meeting due to unavoidable reasons, they had conveyed their solidarity with the meeting.
Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal also attended the meeting on individual status.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Vijay Hansda, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja and CPI(M) leader Nilotpal Basu attended the meeting called by the Congress.
Apart from this, the leaders of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), RSP, JD(U), and Muslim League were present at the meeting.
The Election Commission has called the chairpersons, presidents, and general secretaries of all the national parties for a meeting to be held on January 16.
The meeting pertains to the demonstration and discussion of the Remote Voting Machine.
Notably, to encourage domestic migrants to exercise their franchise, ECI on December 29, informed about a prototype Multi-Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM), which would enable migrant voters to vote from remote polling stations.
It said the inability to vote due to internal migration (domestic migrants) is one of the prominent reasons behind low voter turnout.
The migrant voter wouldn't be required to travel to his/her home district to exercise his/her franchise.
The Commission has also invited all recognised eight national and 57 regional political parties on January 16, 2023, to demonstrate the functioning of the multi-constituency prototype Remote EVM. Members of the EC's Technical Expert Committee will also be present during the demonstration.
The Commission has also solicited written views of recognised political parties by January 31, 2023, on various related issues including changes required in legislation, changes in administrative procedures, and voting method/RVM/technology, if any other, for the domestic migrants, the release further stated.