‘Not machines, but machines’: Tharoor differs from Kharge on EVMs, highlights systemic issues | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday took a different stand from his party’s stand on the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) following the party’s poor performance in the Maharashtra assembly elections.
While Tharoor defended the reliability of EVMs, he expressed concern over possible manipulation within the electoral system.
“It is not the ‘machines’ that are the problem, but the ‘machinery’ of the electoral process,” he said.
“I have never joined those who claimed that EVMs could be tampered with; I believe they are a huge improvement paper ballots,” Tharoor wrote in a post on
“The allegations made here raise serious and legitimate questions that @ECISVEEP MUST answer. Their silence on this issue is astonishing and discredits the entire process that sustains and legitimizes our democracy,” he said.

While sticking to his stand, Tharoor clarified that returning to paper ballots is not the solution.
“The Election Commission has a constitutional duty to ease the minds of the public,” he said.
The MP’s stand differs significantly from that of Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is advocating paper ballots. Kharge alleged that the voices of marginalized communities, including Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), were being left out in the current system.
“We don’t want EVMs. Let them stay in Modi or Amit Shah’s godowns in Ahmedabad. Just hold elections on paper ballots and you will see where you stand,” Kharge said.
In the Maharashtra assembly elections, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance won a resounding victory, winning 236 of the 288 seats – an impressive two-thirds majority. In contrast, the opposition alliance, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), managed to win only 48 seats, marking a mediocre performance and paving the way for Mahayuti’s historic triumph.