“Elections should be conducted through ballot papers”: RJD chief Lalu Yadav's statement on EVMs.

pc: kalingatv

Former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Yadav said on Friday that ballot paper should be used in elections instead of electronic voting machines. Lalu Yadav said, “Our party will win next year's Bihar elections. We will get majority. Elections should be conducted through ballot paper.”

Assembly elections in Bihar are likely to be held in October-November 2025. After Maharashtra Assembly elections, opposition parties and leaders have raised questions on EVMs. Earlier on November 26, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had demanded the use of ballot papers instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs), alleging that “votes of SC, ST, OBC and poor communities are being wasted.”

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

The Congress chief's sharp remarks come soon after his party's crushing defeat in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, where the Mahayuti alliance won a landslide victory and the BJP emerged as the biggest winner with 132 seats in the 280-member Maharashtra Assembly, while its ally Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP won 57 and 41 seats respectively.

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

Several Congress leaders, including Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Digvijay Singh, G Parameshwara and Chamala Kiran Kumar, have expressed concern over the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections and alleged that the BJP has misused electronic voting machines (EVMS). The election has been won by manipulating the targeted polling stations.

The Supreme Court rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to reintroduce the physical paper ballot voting system in elections in India.