- Supriya Sule rejected Opposition claims of EVM rigging, citing her four electoral wins using them
- She expressed confidence in EVMs and VVPATs
- Rahul Gandhi accused BJP of using Election Commission to undermine Indian democracy during debate
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Supriya Sule has turned down the Opposition's electronic voting machine (EVM) rigging charges, saying she has been elected four times because of the same machines.
"I have been elected on the same machine, so I will not question the EVMs or VVPATs. I am not speaking against the machine. I am making a very limited point, and with great expectations from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has got such a big mandate in Maharashtra," Sule, the four-term Lok Sabha member from Baramati in Maharashtra, said during the debate on election reforms.
Sule, an ally of the Congress-led INDIA bloc, made the remarks days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the Centre over poll rigging - a charge the Opposition has been making for many years. Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had also said that it is "wrong" to question EVMs "only when results don't meet expectations".
Gandhi, during the debate, reiterated his allegation that the BJP is "directing and using" the Election Commission to damage India's democracy. He also questioned why the Chief Justice of India has been removed from the selection panel for appointing the Election Commissioners.
The Congress leader called for providing a machine-readable voter list to all parties one month before elections, scrapping the law that allows destruction of CCTV footage after 45 days, giving access to EVMs, and changing the law that allows the Election Commissioners "to get away with whatever they want to do".
Union Home Minister Amit Shah hit back at Gandhi, saying the EVMs were introduced in the country by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and it is his son and his party now that oppose them. Shah also pointed out that it was the Congress which won the first election held through EVMS.
"This was in 2004 when Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister. Ten years later, when we won in 2014, they (the Congress) raised doubts," he said.
