New Delhi: Amid opposition parties' demand for holding elections through ballot paper, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday hit back, saying it would mean going back to the days of booth capturing. Participating in the Lok Sabha debate on 'Election Reforms', the former Union Law Minister said the opposition should not talk about going back to the old ballot paper system. He said there are at least two dozen Supreme Court and High Court judgments that have validated the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Prasad recalled that the Election Commission had invited parties to hack EVMs in its presence, but none turned up. "Now they are raising a fuss (against EVMs)," he said.
Prasad also noted that ‘not a single application’ was received to check the EVM microcontrollers after the recent Bihar elections.
He said that to boost voter confidence, mandatory verification of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails Unit (VVPAT) slips was done for five polling stations randomly selected from each assembly constituency, but no irregularities were found in the counting of EVMs anywhere in Bihar.
Prasad said that the government has repeatedly refused to go back to the ballot paper system as EVMs have made the election process faster and safer.