'We Don't Want EVM, Keep Them At BJP Leaders' Homes': Kharge Announces 'Bharat Jodo'-Style Yatra To Demand Ballot Paper Voting

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the votes given by subaltern communities are going to waste because of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and urged the return to ballot papers.

In an address on Tuesday (26 November), Kharge said, "Leave EVM. We don't want EVM. We want voting on ballot papers, that's it," adding that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi agrees with him.

"Let them (BJP leaders) keep the machines at their homes or (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi or (Union Home Minister Amit) Shah's home. Ahmedabad has many godowns, keep the machines there," he added.

Kharge asserted that only then the real condition of the BJP will be known and where it stands. He added that Congress will start a nationwide campaign to demand ballot papers.

"We will ask all parties to join. Under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi ji, a yatra like Bharat Jodo Yatra will be taken out to demand ballot paper voting," the Congress president said during Constitution Day address.

The remarks come on a day when the Supreme Court has dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking ballot voting and remarked, "When you lose elections, EVMs are tampered with."

Earlier, the leader of the opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi launched Bharat Jodo Yatra along India's north-south axis and its second edition named as Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra along east-west axis.