‘Replace EVMs with paper ballot’

Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has expressed doubts over the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in the Karnataka assembly elections in which it emerged as the single-largest party. NCP’s state president Jayant Patil expressed suspicions about the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). He said election commission has to look into the matter and replace EVMs with paper ballot.

“Ground reports in Karnataka about Congress were good. They were also getting good response in its campaign. But I wonder to see the BJP’s performance in that state. BJP getting so many seats is something illogical,” said Mr Patil. He also said, “The doubts about EVM are serious. Election Commission should take note of that.”

In Karnataka, NCP has given unconditional support to Congress. Party’s national spokesperson D.P. Tripathi had declared the support to grand old party. Before that, party leadership was in talks with Janata Dal for an alliance of the party. But, according to sources, after Congress leadership personally intervened and discussed with NCP leadership, latter decided to walk out from an alliance and support Congress. So, Mr Patil raising doubts over BJP getting highest seats is being seen on this backdrop.

It is interesting that not just NCP but even Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Raj Thackeray too called Karnataka election as ‘EVM win’. “Its victory of the electronic voting machine,” tweeted Mr Thackeray on Tuesday afternoon.  Mr Thackeray is continuously raising doubts over functioning of EVM for quiet some time. He expressed his reaction just after the BJP passed the half way mark of numbers on trends.