Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said his party did not reject Electronic Voting Machines and the party is for improvement of VVPAT and asserted that he has never blamed the EVMs.

Answering a question at a press conference here, Chidambaram said that in the Congress party's manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 'we did not reject EVMs.' Chidambaram was answering a question on PM Narendra Modi's comment on the silence of the opposition bloc on EVMs.

"Please read the manifesto, what we say is, the VVPAT slip, in order for us to read, displays for about 4-5 seconds and then the slip falls inside the box. What we say in the manifesto is that there should be one more improvement," he told reporters.

Rather than the slip automatically falling inside the VVPAT box, the voter should be able to receive it, see that and then deposit it into the box and with this improvement, there will be no doubt for anyone as regards the EVM-VVPAT system.

Even now, if opinion is sought on EVMs, "four out of ten or three out of ten people doubt the EVMs and I am not saying if the suspicion is just or not; as far as I am concerned, I have never blamed the EVMs." The Congress party's stand is to further improve and reform the EVM system, he asserted. "I am not denying that one or two party leaders are opposing the EVM system, but that is not the party's stand." Modi, addressing newly-elected MPs and leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Delhi, flayed the opposition INDIA bloc leaders for casting suspicions on EVMs and the Election Commission throughout the poll process, alleging that they wanted to stoke fire across the country if the results did not suit them. However, the EVMs silenced them by June 4 evening, the PM said in an apparent reference to the opposition's better-than-expected showing.

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