Pawar calls meeting of Kharge, Opposition Rajya Sabha leaders to discuss EVM

NCP chief Sharad Pawar has called a meeting of the floor leaders of opposition parties in Rajya Sabha, including leader of opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, to discuss the issues related to Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).

In the letter to floor leaders, Pawar said that it is "an acknowledged fact that any machine with a chip can be hacked," adding that doubts regarding the possibility of manipulating EVM are being raised by even the common man now.

This meeting comes after the Chief Election Commissioner said he would answer questions from political parties and activists from civil society.


Pawar said in the interest of free and fair elections, "we must sit together and listen to the views expressed by eminent IT professionals and cryptographers."

The NCP leader also shared with opposition leaders the civil society letter written last year to all three election commissioners on the integrity and credibility of electronic voting and counting in electoral democracy.

The civil society presented a letter to EC in May 2022 and one more update following two weeks (Annexure 3) but the letter was not acknowledged by EC.

He also shared the Citizens' Commission on Elections (CCE), a civil society group of retired judges, former civil servants, report on EVMs, saying that it has raised some very pertinent questions.