Congress Wants Return To Ballot Paper But Lost Two Major Non-EVM Polls In A Month

A demand for the return of ballot papers for voting has echoed in almost every Congress pitch on big issues related to elections and the electoral process, including the recent controversy around special intensive revision (SIR) and CEC Gyanesh Kumar. Rahul Gandhi-led campaign is seeking the resignation of Kumar and cancellation of SIR. While both the demands seek to address the alleged irregularities, the third demand of ballot paper return is not directly related to SIR and resonates with the long-standing allegations of vote manipulation.

Congress has for long alleged vote chori, first by the EVMs and then through the electoral rolls revision process. The party has time and again flagged it as one of the reasons for its humungous losses across years. However, recent local body and legislative body elections narrate a completely different story.

In recently concluded local body elections in Assam, Congress lost the first-ever polls for the Silchar Municipal Corporation, winning only two seats. The ruling BJP swept the polls by winning 34 out of a total 42 seats. Its ally Assam Gana Parishad won two seats. The polls were conducted through ballot papers. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma targeted Congress over its demand, saying it can't win even with ballot papers.

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"See, Congress loses even on paper ballots. In fact, Congress loses even more on paper ballots. That’s why in EVMs, sometimes people go and press NOTA or get panicked seeing the machine and vote in the wrong place. But people are well-practised in voting on paper ballots. So whenever voting happens on paper ballots, Congress loses even more," Sarma said.

The grand old party's criticism for losing Silchar civic polls may be brushed aside considering the dominant presence of the ruling party in both the assembly and parliamentary constituencies there. However, the results from the recently concluded Karnataka legislative council elections raise an alarm for it.

The polls for MLC seats were held on four seats in Karnataka. The ruling Congress scored a duck as all four seats went to the NDA - 3 BJP and 1 JD(S).

The saffron party won the North-East Teachers' constituency, the South-East Graduates' and the West Graduates' constituencies while its ally JD(S) clinched the Bengaluru Teachers' constituency.

BJP leader Ashok Gowda called the results an indication of what would happen in the elections for BBMP, the Bengaluru municipal body. The most shocking defeat for Congress came from the Bengaluru Teachers' constituency, where sitting party MLC and former Karnataka Legislative Council Deputy Chairman Puttanna lost the polls to JDS's AP Ranganathan.

JDS leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy hit out at Rahul Gandhi over his ballot paper demand for polls and questions on EVM voting. In a post on X, Nikhil said there were no EVMs to blame this time, as the election was held through ballot papers and the Congress was in power in Karnataka.

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Taking a swipe, he asked Gandhi if the next excuse for him is 'Paper Chori'. "Now that educated teachers voted on paper right under your government's nose, what's today's excuse, 'Paper Chori'?" he wrote in a post on X.

 Apart from Karnataka, Congress has drawn a black line across the other three states that went to legislative council polls. A total of 28 seats went to polls across 4 states. Although Congress didn't contest all of them, it lost each seat it contested despite ballot paper voting.