A rallying cry, EVM hatao, desh bachao, went up at the press club at Azad Maidan on Wednesday as activists called for returning to ballot paper in all future elections. They held a press meet citing an agenda for August 9, where they claim there will be a long march from Chaitya Bhoomi (Dadar) to August Kranti Maidan (near Gowalia Tank) to raise awareness about how EVMs are manipulated and why we need an EVM-mukt bharat.

Given that the activists on the dais were all against PM Narendra Modi, by EVM-mukt bharat do they really mean BJP-mukt bharat? Activist Ravi Bhilane said, "I am not for or against a particular party but against EVM manipulation per se. Our movement [awareness and andolan against EVMs] started the day the Lok Sabha election results were declared. There was a shocked silence across the nation at the scale of the BJP win," claimed Bhilane, who is part of the Jan Andolan National Working Committee against EVMs. "We want the forthcoming Assembly elections to be fought via the paper ballot."