NEW DELHI: YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday came out in support of the Congress party‘s “EVM manipulation” claims, saying paper ballots should be brought back into the electoral process to “instil confidence”.
Referring to the Haryana assembly election results, which defied exit polls predictions in Congress’s favour, Andhra Pradesh‘s former chief minister said “another election result confounds popular perception”.
Jagan also drew a parallel between the Andhra and Haryana poll results to assert that both outcomes are “no different”.
Notably, in the Andhra Pradesh assembly election, which was held simultaneously with the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the YSRCP was routed as it won only 11 seats in the 175-member assembly.
“Yet another election result confounds popular perception. Haryana election result is no different from Andhra Pradesh, on which cases are pending in courts. In a democracy like ours, Democracy should not only be prevalent but also be seen to be thriving. Only way to ensure both, is going back to Paper Ballot,” Jagan Reddy said in a post on X.
The YSRCP chief further said that India, on lines with the developed nation, should use paper ballots to “enhance the confidence of the electorate”.
“When a large majority of developed countries including USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, France, Japan, Norway and Denmark are using paper ballot, it is time we make changes with rest of the world and move towards Paper Ballot, which in turn would enhance the confidence of the electorate. The lawmakers should come forward to instil confidence,” Reddy wrote.
Reddy’s statement comes a day after Haryana poll results that threw up a mandate against Congress as the party managed to win only 37 seats in the 90-member House.
After the results become abundantly clear, the Congress rejected the mandate as it claimed that the victory in the Haryana polls was snatched from it and the system had been misused.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the Congress has been made to lose but it “has not lost”.
Relenting to budge, Congress also wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI), which rejected the party’s claim as “far from a legitimate part of free speech and expression”.
In a sharp reply to Congress’s “manipulation” claims, the EC wrote to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, saying: “Such an unprecedented statement as above in a generic sense, unheard in the rich democratic heritage of the country, is far from a legitimate part of free speech & expression and moves towards an undemocratic rejection of the will of the people expressed in accordance with the Statutory and Regulatory electoral framework, uniformly applied across all elections in the country including J&K and Haryana.”