Nirupam wants 2019 polls conducted on ballot papers

Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam today said "faulty" EVMs were used in yesterday's Lok Sabha bypolls in various parts of the country and demanded that next year's general elections be held using ballot papers.

The Congress leader said that the voting for the byelections conducted for Palghar and Bhandara-Gondia seats in Maharashtra, Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, and in Nagaland came to halt on complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

"It is said that the EVMs malfunctioned due to excessive heat, however, the voters feel that the EVMs were rigged, as even the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) machines weren't working apparently due to factors like rising temperature, dust etc," he said.

Polling for the Palghar and Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha seats was marred by instances of malfunctioning of EVMs and VVPATs, prompting the opposition parties to express reservations over the use of these machines.

Instances of alleged malfunctioning of "hundreds" of EVMs and paper trail machines were also reported during bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

Nirupam alleged that the BJP has been manipulating the EVMs since 2014 and would continue to do so in 2019 as well.

"The BJP is very likely to resort to such acts for the sake of winning these by-polls. The voters aren't sure if the candidate they are voting for is receiving their votes or not. I demand that the 2019 Lok Sabha polls be conducted using ballot papers," he said.