NEW DELHI: After Mallikarjun Kharge demanded a return to ballot papers in place of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the BJP on Wednesday hit out at the Congress chief and opposition for casting doubts on the election process, saying regardless of the voting method, the Congress’s performance would be no different.
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan weighed in on the issue, describing the Congress party’s stance as a sign of “desperation” following repeated electoral defeats. Referring to objections raised by Rajiv Gandhi regarding ballot papers in the past, Pradhan accused the Congress of not owning up for its losses.
“Whether you remove EVMs or not, the public has already sidelined the Congress,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said during a press conference in the national capital.
Responding to Kharge’s statement that the votes of SC-ST-OBC communities were being wasted due to EVMs, the BJP spokesperson accused the Congress of “insulting” these communities. “Does Mallikarjun Kharge ji and the Congress party believe that the SC-ST-OBC community is so illiterate that they cannot understand how to vote using EVMs?” he questioned.
Referring to decisive victories in Maharashtra and Haryana, the BJP spokesperson said that for the BJP, EVM stands for “‘E – Energy, V – Vikas (development), M – Mehnat (hard work),” while asserting that the Congress is losing because of “RBM – ‘R – Rahul’s, B – Bekar (poor), M – Management.”
“The problem is not in the machine (EVM). The problem is with the (Congress) leadership. The EVM is fine, Rahul is faulty. Replace Rahul, not EVM,”
The BJP further pointed out that even during elections conducted with ballot papers, Congress leaders, including former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, had raised objections to the process. “Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had objections when elections were conducted through ballot papers, and today when Congress is losing elections due to EVMs, his prince (शहज़ादे) has a problem with EVMs,” Union minister Pradhan said on X.
The war of words erupted after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday called for the government to abandon EVMs in favor of paper ballots. He proposed launching a campaign similar to the Bharat Jodo Yatra and indicated plans to engage other political parties on the matter.
“The votes cast by SCs, STs, and OBCs in our favor are disappearing. We need to get rid of EVMs. We don’t need EVMs. We need ballot papers,” Kharge had said.