Union Minister and Senior BJP leader Pralhad Joshi has said that the decision to conduct local body elections in Karnataka using ballot papers is a regressive step. In a social media post, Mr Joshi said that the State government is trying to prove a false rhetoric that undermines decades of progress. He said that booth rigging and capturing booths were relics of the past due to the introduction of EVMs.

The Minister also noted that even the Karnataka State department’s recent survey of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice had clearly stated that people trusted the EVMs. Mr Joshi highlighted that Karnataka was a pioneer of India’s EVM revolution, noting that Bengaluru was among the first cities to pilot EVMs in the late 1980s, and the state led their adoption in the 1990s. Mr Joshi said that over time, EVMs, with VVPAT, became the backbone of India’s electoral process. He claimed that this decision was taken by the Congress-ruled State Government to prove to their leadership in Delhi and to supplement their baseless claims about elections.