After the BJP-led NDA won most of the seats in the elections held on 28 Legislative Council seats in four states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a dig at the opposition Congress party while posting on X.
Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter, "If the elections were held through ballot paper, guess how many seats Congress would have won."
Till the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi made this post on Wednesday evening, Congress had not got even a single seat in the MLC elections.
However, Congress later won the Nagpur seat in Maharashtra.
In the MLC elections held in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar, the BJP-led NDA alliance has won 16 out of 28 seats.
Samajwadi Party has won five seats in Uttar Pradesh, which includes Varanasi.
Out of the total five seats in Maharashtra, two have been won by the BJP led alliance while three have been won by the India alliance.
This time Congress has won Nagpur seat from BJP. Nagpur is also the headquarters of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
However, Congress has suffered a setback in Karnataka where all four seats have been won by the BJP-led alliance.
Elections for MLC (Legislative Council) were held through ballot papers. Congress and its led Indian alliance are demanding holding of general elections through ballot papers.
Amidst the debate over transparency in the electoral process and questions being raised on the Election Commission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's post on X has been seen as a direct attack on the Congress.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah wrote in a post around 9 pm on Wednesday night, "How many seats did Congress win out of 28… "0"
Amit Shah wrote, "Ballot box resignation."
Along with his post, Amit Shah also posted a picture in which a person is holding a poster on which it is written, "Ballot Box Resign."
Whereas former BJP President JP Nadda wrote, "Those who were demanding ballot paper, the ballot paper itself has given them the answer."
While current BJP president Nitin Nabin wrote, "The problem was never in EVMs, the problem lies in people rejecting Congress. After every defeat, a new excuse comes but no propaganda can change the decision of the people."
After the Prime Minister's post, sarcastic posts started being made on social media saying 'check zero'.
However, Congress responded to BJP's sarcasm and questions.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Kheda said, "If Narendra Modi believes that EVMs have no role in the election results, then he should prove BJP's electoral strength not by words but by actions. He should promise that all future Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be held through ballot papers and restore the 13.3 crore votes that were deducted by canceling the SIR process."
“Take the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and withdraw the law which gives lifelong protection to Gyanesh Kumar. Unless Modi does this, no one will take his words seriously."
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinet said in a statement, "Banaras is the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Patna is the home constituency of BJP President Nitin Nabin, Nagpur is the headquarters of the RSS and the stronghold of Devendra Fadnavis. When the elections were held through ballot paper, all the strongholds of the BJP were destroyed, all the airs were gone."
Supriya Shrinet said, "You are playing a lot of tweet-tweet, the challenge is to you, conduct elections through ballot. Now you have lost the strongholds, you people are yet to be dealt with in the country."
After the Prime Minister's post, debate is also taking place on social media.
Content creator Dhruv Rathi, replying to the Prime Minister's post, wrote, "Forgery is happening in the voter list, and despite the fraud, you have lost in your own constituency Varanasi."
Rathi wrote, "You are trying to fool people by making it a ballot paper vs EVM issue. Nice pun."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a Lok Sabha MP from Varanasi. BJP has lost the MLC elections in this area.
Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai wrote, "Congress has won the Nagpur graduate MLC seat. Maha Vikas Aghadi has won three out of five seats in Maharashtra. This is a big thing because Nagpur is the stronghold of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was MLC from this seat for twenty-four years."
Since 2004, general elections in India are being held through EVMs. However, before this EVM was being used as an experiment.
The use of ballot papers in general elections in India is not prohibited under any law, although the use of EVMs was permitted by changing the law.
Section 61A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 allows the Election Commission to use machines for voting in specified constituencies.
Opposition to EVMs is not a new thing. However, before 2009 this protest was limited.
When EVMs were being used experimentally, in 1989, former Prime Minister VP Singh and other leaders had publicly challenged their use.
In the 1980s, the issue of EVM was also raised in the courts. However, there was no sustained political campaign against EVMs.
At the same time, after the victory of Congress in the 2009 general elections, BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani had raised questions on EVMs and asked whether they were 'foolproof'.
He had also demanded to return to conducting elections through ballot papers. Many other political parties had also then agreed on the questions regarding EVMs.
BJP had also demanded an all-party meeting to discuss this issue.
In 2010, BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao wrote a book titled, 'Democracy at Risk! 'Can We Trust EVM' i.e. democracy is in danger, can we trust EVM.
In the year 2013, on the petition of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, the Supreme Court gave the decision of VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail).
The initial opposition to EVMs was from the BJP, but since BJP came to power in 2014, questions have been raised on the functioning and transparency of EVMs by Congress and its leadership alliance.
The opposition's questions regarding the credibility of the elections have become more serious since the Election Commission started the process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter lists last year.
Opposition parties led by Congress are demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. There is also a demand to conduct elections through ballot papers.
Senior journalist Sharad Gupta says, "There may be questions about EVMs but comparison between MLC elections and general elections is not practical. A graduate election or a teacher constituency election cannot be compared with a parliamentary constituency election. There is a huge difference in the scale of the two."
Sharad Gupta says, "The number of voters in teacher or graduate constituencies is very less. In some constituencies it can be in thousands, while in others it can be up to a few lakhs. In comparison, there are 15 to 18 lakh voters in a parliamentary constituency. If the votes of 18 lakh voters are counted through ballot paper, then it can be estimated how much time will be taken in counting. It takes more time to conduct elections through ballot paper."
Emphasizing the challenges of conducting elections through ballot paper, Sharad Gupta says, "When elections were held through ballot paper, it would take two to three days to count. There were incidents like snatching, tearing of ballot paper, filling water in ballot boxes and running away with the ballot boxes. There were also incidents of violence."
However, he also believes that restoring trust in the election process is more important than these challenges.
Sharad Gupta says, "If people demand, then there is no harm in conducting elections through ballot paper once. Try doing this also, so that the debate on this issue can end forever."
Senior journalist Hemant Atri says that this is not the first time that questions are being raised on the reliability of EVMs.
Atri says, "Looking at the world's experience, the demand for holding elections through ballot paper cannot be called completely impractical. Why can't there be a possibility of error or manipulation in a machine made by a human being? The question is, can't the person making the machine make changes in it?"
Hemant Atri says that the biggest issue at present is to restore people's faith in the election process and the Election Commission.
He says, "When questions arise on the credibility of the country's electoral democratic system, whether they are about EVMs or voter lists, why should not these concerns be addressed together?"
Elections India has been rejecting claims of EVM tampering. The Election Commission has been insisting that EVMs are secure and cannot be tampered with.
According to the Election Commission, these machines are not connected to the Internet or any other network and cannot be hacked.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's post on social media after the MLC elections has once again intensified the debate on returning to the ballot paper.
