VVPAT Issue: Congress Gen Secy Jairam Ramesh Writes To Election Commission, Seeks Appointment For INDIA Bloc Leaders

Jairam Ramesh has written to the Election Commission of India, seeking an appointment for a three-four member team of INDIA Party leaders in the VVPAT issue.

New Delhi: The General Secretary of the Indian National Congress (INC), Jairam Ramesh has written a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and has requested the body for an appointment with three-four INDIA Bloc leaders with respect to the issue of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The Congress veteran, in his letter, is seeking opportunity so that the INDIA Bloc leaders can explain their perspective on the use of the VVPATs. Jairam Ramesh believes that his request is a genuine, legitimate one and the letter was written on December 30, 2023.

Jairam Ramesh Writes Letter To ECI

As mentioned earlier, Congress General Secretary, Jairam Ramesh has written a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI), seeking an appointment for INDIA Bloc leaders regarding the VVPATs Issue. The letter reads “…make a request for an opportunity for a 3-4 member team of INDIA party leaders to meet with you and your colleagues and talk a few minutes to put forward our point of view on VVPATs. Surely, this is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate request.”

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote a letter to the Election Commission of India on 30th December seeking an appointment to meet the delegation of India Bloc leaders to discuss the issue of VVPAT.

The letter reads “…make a request for an opportunity for a 3-4 member… pic.twitter.com/qOMi6eedHF

— ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2024

What Does Jairam Ramesh’s Letter Say?

In his letter, Jairam Ramesh has presented a timeline from August 9, 2023 to December 20, 2023, explaining the details of what all happened with respect to the EVM-related concerns of INDIA Parties. The contents of the letter are given below..

On August 9th, 2023 a memorandum had been submitted to the ECI on EVM-related concerns of INDIA parties This was supported with several requests-on August 9th, 2023, August 10th 2023, August 16th 2023, August 18th, 2023 and August 23d 2023– for a meeting of an INDIA Parties’ delegation with the ECI.

On August 23, 2023 ECI issued a clarification to our counsel on the memorandum. This claritication was generic in nature and i) directed us to refer to the standard FAOs on EVMs available on the ECI website; (ii) explained the legal backing for EVMs through Section 61A of the Representation of Peoples’ Act, 1951; (iii) summarised the judgments of the High Courts and the Supreme Court on the issue of EVMs; (iv) provided a chart of assembly and parliamentary election results since 2004 to show that the political party winning the maximum number of seats changed several times. However, there was no meeting or hearing provided to the INDIA Parties’ delegation despite repeated requests.

On October 2nd, 2023 a follow-up representation was sent by us through counsel. The representation raised specific concerns which remained unaddressed in the ECI’s clarification of August 23d, 2023. No response was received on the same.

On December 20th, 2023 we again requested for an appointment with the ECI to “discuss and provide suggestions on the use of VVPATs” based on a resolution passed at meeting of leaders of INDIA parties held the previous day. We have been trying to meet with the ECI to hand over a copy of this resolution and have a discussion but have not been successful so far in doing so.

In the end, Jairam Ramesh wrote, “I once again make a request for an opportunity for a 3-4 member team of INDIA party leaders to meet with you and your colleagues and take a few minutes to put forward our point of view on VVPATs. Surely, this is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate request.”