'Don't Want EVMs': Mallikarjun Kharge Pushes for Ballot Paper Voting After Maharashtra Election Debacle

Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said that they don't want EVMs, and demanded ballot paper.“We don't want EVMs, we want ballot paper,” reported PTI quoting Mallikarjun Kharge.Kharge also called for campaign on lines of Bharat Jodo Yatra for return of ballot paper. Kharge made the remark while addressing the Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyan event at Talkatora Stadium in Delhi.In the recently held Maharashtra assembly elections, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was routed by the BJP-led Mahayuti in the one-sided contest. While MVA alliance won 46 seats, Congress won just 16 seats. The Mahayuti recorded a landslide victory, winning 230 out of 288 seats. The BJP bagged 132 seats, the Shiv Sena 57, and NCP 41 seats.

The Bharatiya Janata Party slammed Kharge for demanding the upcoming elections on ballot paper instead of using Electronic Voting machines (EVMs) saying that the grand old party insults and condemns Constitution, constitutional bodies like Election Commission of India (ECI) and Supreme Court by making such statements. BJP National spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla took a jibe at Kharge saying that for him the Election Commission and the EVMs work properly when the Congress wins elections (like in Jammu-Kashmir, Telangana, Wayanad, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand), but when the BJP-led parties perform well, they try to blame their loss on the constitution and EVMs.

Poonawalla’s remarks came hours after Congress President urged to return to the traditional way of conduction elections via using ballot papers alleging tampering with the voting machines. While addressing an event on Tuesday, Kharge said, “We don’t want elections through EVMs. We want elections through ballot papers. Just like we had carried out the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, we will run a nationwide campaign for elections using ballot papers."The apex court meanwhile dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which sought conducting upcoming elections on ballot paper in India.