Will start movement for return of ballot papers: Mamata

Kanchrapara (West Bengal) June 14 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday intensified her demand for the return of the ballot paper system in polling and said her party will start a movement with this demand on the July 21 Martyr's Day Rally.

Accusing the BJP of programming the EVMs used in the 2019 polls, the Trinamool Congress supremo said "ballot papers are the only solution for reinstating democracy in the country".

"The EVMs were programmed. Otherwise they (BJP) would not have been able to win. After many EVMs malfunctioned during the polls, new machines were brought in without testing them in mock polls. Who knows if they were pre-programmed? Did anybody check if those machines were overloaded or not?" Banerjee said at a public rally here.

"Our demand is, we do not want EVMs. We want ballot papers. We will start our movement based on this demand on July 21 this year. Once we held a movement demanding no identity cards, no vote. 13 of our workers died that day. More than 100 workers were injured. But we made sure that our demand was fulfilled. We will do the same this time as well," Banerjee said.

An annual mass rally is organised by the All India Trinamool Congress on July 21 every year to commemorate the 1993 Kolkata firing as Martys' Day. It is in remembrance of 13 people shot by the West Bengal Police in Kolkata, during a rally by the West Bengal Youth Congress under Mamata Banerjee on July 21, 1993, while demanding that the Voter's Identity Card be made the sole required document for voting.