Waman Meshram

Waman Meshram started people's movement against EVM in 2014 itself. He and his organisation Bharat Mukti Morcha(BMM) launched a five-phased protest campaign across the country from March 2017 demanding for discontinuing electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the electoral process in India.

Addressing a press conference in March 2017, Waman Meshram said, "Using EVMs is the worst practice in the electoral process in the world. We will continue to fight against EVMs till their usage is stopped." Meshram stated that he had filed a petition against the Election Commission of India(EC) asking it to attach Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the EVMs but it is being delayed deliberately. Delaying this is going to only help two organizations, political parties. If we want to keep the democracy of our country alive, ballet papers must be used for election as they cannot be rigged," he added. Talking about the petition filled in the Supreme Court, Meshram said, "I had filed a case of contempt of court against Election Commission of India (EC). The apex court in its verdict of 8 October 2013, had clearly said that EVM machines can be fixed or rigged, so as a hard proof VVPAT machines must be attached to EVMs but the guidelines have not followed." In 2014 and 2019 Election his party contested on many seats but lost deposits on almost all the seats. Meshram also alleged that the Election Commission of India (EC) has been pressured by the Central government to rig elections across the country. "The election commission in a reply to my letter said that the Central government is not providing funds to attach VVPAT machines, but the EC is an autonomous institution. It should have gone to the President or held a press conference as the citizens have the right to know," he said.[5]