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She had earlier alleged manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by the CPM cadres and the recent victory by her party in the panchayat elections where ballot papers were used instead of EVMs had further strengthened her contention.
“First, I will discuss this issue with other political parties in New Delhi and later approach the Election Commission. We will demand that EVMs should be replaced and the system of casting votes by using ballot papers be reintroduced,” Banerjee said before departing for Delhi. “There is a lot of scope in manipulating the EVMs. The machine can be programmed in such a way that the ruling party can benefit. In fact, we strongly suspect that in the recent assembly elections the Marxists had manipulated the machines in their favour,” she added.
Since the last assembly elections in 2006, Banerjee has been making demand of replacing the EVMs. In fact, after the 2006 elections her party had held a series of rallies and seminars on this issue.
She also said that she would raise the issue of CPM terrorising the villages after the party got drubbing in the panchayat elections. “They are targeting our men everywhere. Just yesterday one of our supporters was killed at Khondoghosh (Burdwan district). Chief Minister Buddhadeb babu should tell his party men to restrain themselves otherwise he will have to pay a heavy price for that,” Banerjee said.
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