New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) CPI(M) leader Hannan Mollah on Thursday said the Congress’s poor performance in the recent Legislative Council elections held through ballot papers in four states was due to its inability to improve its electoral performance and not the voting system.
Speaking to IANS, Mollah said, “The ballot paper is not the only reason. The reason is that the Congress party’s performance has not improved, and that is why it lost. In any election, there are winners and losers. It did not get enough votes, so it lost. But they are talking about ballot papers.”
He added that voting through ballot papers could help address some public concerns surrounding Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), but maintained that it was not the primary reason behind the Congress’s electoral setbacks.
“With ballot papers, the vote count increases, and the doubts among people arising from the controversy surrounding machines are somewhat addressed. So, that is not the main issue. When the Prime Minister wins, he will speak, won’t he? When he wins, his voice becomes louder. The Congress party’s performance should improve further. I particularly do not understand why this happened in Karnataka, where the party is in power,” he told IANS.
Reacting to the Supreme Court questioning the Election Commission over the use of Form 6, Mollah said the form was intended for new voters and should not be used for purposes beyond its prescribed scope.
“Form 6 is meant for new voters and has always been part of the electoral process. New voters are added every year. Form 6 is for those who have not voted before. However, the government had also asked existing voters to fill it out, which was wrong and illegal. That is why the Supreme Court said it was wrong,” he said.
He added that a separate form should be introduced if authorities wanted to collect information from existing voters for a different purpose.
“They should create a new form, perhaps Form 7 or another form, for this new situation. But a form meant for a specific purpose should be used only for that specific purpose. The Supreme Court has questioned the Election Commission’s procedure. We will now see what the judgment says,” he added.
On the INDIA bloc rally scheduled for November 1 at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, Mollah expressed confidence that the event would draw a large gathering.
“The rally will be good. The government is afraid, isn’t it? Initially, they took away Jantar Mantar from us and gave us a ground. Now, permission has been granted there too, but for only three days. After that, they realised that more people were coming and that the gathering would become massive,” he said.
Mollah alleged that concerns over potential business losses were being used to restrict the rally, adding that the protest’s impact could grow in the coming days.
–IANS
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