Bengaluru, Feb 9 The Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged on Monday that the CM Siddaramaiah-led government's decision to go for ballot papers instead of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in local body polls is intended to create distrust among people.
BJP State President and MLA B.Y. Vijayendra claimed on Monday that the government’s decision to revert to ballot papers for local body polls is naked political opportunism designed to suit a convenient narrative.
After repeatedly questioning democratic institutions at the national level with the “vote chori” slogan, they now appear intent on recreating the same distrust within Karnataka, he underlined.
This is not about strengthening democracy, it is about manufacturing suspicion where none exists, Vijayendra stated.
"In 2023, the people of Karnataka voted in Assembly elections through EVMs. In the 2024 bye-elections too, the same machines were accepted without question when the results were favourable. If EVMs were reliable enough to bring them to power, how can they suddenly become unreliable for local body polls? This selective logic clearly exposes the hypocrisy behind the move," he slammed.
This regressive step has little to do with electoral integrity and everything to do with echoing a debunked narrative. The Supreme Court, over the years has repeatedly upheld the security and credibility of EVMs. India’s shift to EVMs was meant to move away from an era associated with booth capturing, invalid votes, delayed counting and manipulation. Reintroducing ballot papers risks reopening the door to the very problems the country worked hard to eliminate, Vijayendra stated.
Karnataka deserves governance, not gimmicks. If EVMs were legitimate enough to make Congress the ruling party, they are legitimate enough for local elections. This is not reform, it's the deliberate creation of anarchy to serve narrow political interests, he said.
It can be recalled that, following up on a decision to revert from EVMs to ballot papers for local polls, the Karnataka government has decided to introduce a Bill in the forthcoming Budget Session of the legislature to facilitate the reversion.
A meeting of the state cabinet had approved the introduction of the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to do away with EVMs for local polls in villages and to revert to the older system of casting votes on ballot papers.
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