'Dissolve Assembly if you doubt EVMs': BJP tells Karnataka Congress amid state's ballot paper move

'The government's decision is an insult to the enlightened voter of this country. This is being done just to impress the Congress high command and dance to their tunes, BJP's S Suresh Kumar said.

Bengaluru: The opposition BJP on Friday asked Congress to dissolve the Karnataka Assembly and face fresh polls, saying the government has expressed suspicion on the same Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) that were used in the 2023 Assembly election that it won.

The BJP was reacting to the government's decision to switch to ballot papers for all local body elections citing lack of trust in EVMs.

"If this government has doubts about EVMs, I think the reasonable option was to dissolve the Assembly and go for fresh elections," senior BJP lawmaker S Suresh Kumar, a former parliamentary affairs minister, said.

Reintroducing ballot papers is a "regressive" move, Kumar said. "The government's decision is an insult to the enlightened voter of this country. This is being done just to impress [the Congress high command] and dance to their tunes," he said.

Kumar pointed out that Congress came to power twice at the Centre after EVMs were introduced. "Congress also won in several states," he said. "Rahul Gandhi himself won from both Amethi and Wayanad in elections that were held using EVMs," he said.

The BJP leader asked Law Minister HK Patil to explain the basis of his statement that the government's decision to bring back ballot papers was based on public sentiment. "Has the government conducted any survey of citizens on EVMs?" he said.

Kumar also warned against the disadvantages with ballot papers. "I've seen ballot papers when I became a councillor (in 1983 and 1990) and MLA (1994). Counting of votes happens overnight. Also, EVMs have saved lakhs of trees. Plus, ballot boxes used to get stolen," he said.

Attacking the government, BJP state president BY Vijayendra charged that Congress was "an expert" in electoral irregularities involving ballot papers.

BJP general secretary V Sunil Kumar surmised that ballot papers were being introduced to delay local body polls fearing defeat.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar defended the government's decision.

"Our intention is to use ballot paper. We've decided on ballot papers based on our experience. There are examples of several countries that have returned to ballot paper from EVMs," Siddaramaiah said.

Shivakumar asked why the BJP was worried. "There's a provision in law, enacted during their [BJP] tenure that either ballot or EVM can be used. We've decided to use ballot papers," he said.