"Opposition lagging in mandate of people": BJP's Pradeep Bhandari hits back at opposition's EVM concerns

New Delhi: BJP leader Pradeep Bhandari on Wednesday criticised the opposition's concerns over the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs), suggesting that if the issue is so serious, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should resign as an MP, and the governments of Jharkhand and Karnataka, along with all Telangana MLAs, should step down, as they were all elected through the same EVMs.
Speaking to ANI, the BJP leader said, "The opposition in India is lagging in the mandate of the people. People have told Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra and Sonia Gandhi that you are against us and that the INDI alliance is an anti-people alliance. To hide their failure, they are creating new drama every day to divert the discussion about their failure."
"The opposition will not let the Parliament run, or they will attack democracy and the EVMs. Now that the Election Commission of India has clarified everything on the basis of data. So now they are saying that they would go to the Supreme Court. Some time ago, the same Supreme Court dismissed this petition on the basis of facts and said that nothing malified had been found and that EVM tampering is impossible," said Bhandari.
He further said, "The SC said to the opposition that when you lose they blame but when they win, the EVMs are fine."
"All the time the opposition spends blaming the Election Commission, Supreme Court, and democracy if even 10 per cent of it was spent in introspection and thought as to how the people's mandate was not won and how the anti-people were formed, then there would be no need to do all this drama," said Bhandari.
Taking a jab at the opposition, Bhandari said, "If they are so adamant about this issue, then Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should resign from her position as an MP, and the governments of Jharkhand and Karnataka should step down as well. Similarly, all the MLAs in Telangana should also resign, as they were all elected through the same EVMs."
This comes after the Opposition approached the Supreme Court amid growing apprehensions over EVM transparency and allegations of electoral discrepancies in recent elections.
Opposition parties have repeatedly urged the ECI to ensure accountability and transparency in the voting process.
This comes after a high-level meeting meeting between NCP(SCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, AAP's Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh and senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday reiterated concerns over the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in response to the Opposition's petition in the Supreme Court, which questions discrepancies between voter turnout and EVM tallies.
She called for clarity on the issue through judicial intervention.
Speaking to ANI, Chaturvedi pointed out the responsibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in addressing such concerns.
"There is some responsibility of the Election Commission of India, especially when the former Election Commission of India has also said the voter turnout increases and there is a mismatch observed in the numbers, there should be checking on it," she said.
She also highlighted discrepancies in the electoral roll, particularly in Maharashtra but now they will get it through SC.
The Maharashtra CEO had previously dismissed claims of EVM manipulation, asserting the machines' integrity and robust security measures.
"VVPAT Slip count of randomly selected five polling stations per Assembly Constituency was conducted on November 23, during the counting procedure, in front of the Counting observers / Representatives of Candidates. As per that, the slip count of 1440 VVPAT units from 288 Assembly Constituencies of Maharashtra State has been tallied with respective Control Unit data," said the Maharashtra CEO.