“Elections should be conducted using ballot papers”: RJD chief Lalu Yadav on EVMs

Patna (Bihar) [India], November 29 (ANI): Former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Yadav on Friday said that Electronic Voting Machines should be replaced with ballot papers in the elections.

“Our party will win the Bihar elections to be held next year. We will get the majority. The elections should be conducted using ballot papers,” Lalu Yadav said.

The assembly elections in Bihar are likely to be held in October-November 2025.

The opposition party and leaders have raised questions over EVMs after the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

Earlier on November 26, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge demanded the replacement of electronic voting machines (EVMs) with ballot papers, alleging that votes from “SC, ST, OBC, and poor communities are being wasted.”

“Votes of people from SC, ST, OBC, and poor communities are being wasted. Set aside EVMs. We do not want EVMs; we want voting on ballot paper… Let them keep the machine at their home, at the home of PM Modi or Amit Shah… Then we would know where you (BJP-NDA) stand,” Mallikarjun Kharge said while speaking at the Constitution Day program at Talkatora Stadium here.

The Congress Chief’s scathing remarks come on the heels of his party’s crushing defeat in the Maharashtra Assembly election, where the Mahayuti alliance swept to power in a landslide victory with the BJP emerging as the biggest winner with 132 seats out of 280 member Maharashtra assembly, while its allies–the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar–won 57 and 41 seats, respectively.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi – comprising the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Sharad Pawar and the Congress – won just 46 seats.

Several Congress leaders, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Digvijaya Singh, G Parameshwara, and Chamala Kiran Kumar, have raised concerns over the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in the recent Maharashtra assembly election and alleged that it won the election by manipulating targeted polling booths through electronic voting machines (EVMS).

The Supreme Court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking the reintroduction of the physical paper ballot voting system in elections in India.