BJP hits back, says paper ballot will bring back booth capturing

IN a rebuttal to opposition parties' vociferous demand on reverting to paper ballot elections, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said it would mean going back to the days of booth capturing.

- PREETHA NAIR @ New Delhi

Participating in a debate in Lok Sabha on 'election reforms', the former Union law minister said the opposition should not talk of returning to the old ballot paper system. There are at least two dozen Supreme Court and high court judgments validating the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), he said.

Prasad recalled that the Election Commission had invited parties to hack EVMs in its presence, but none turned up. "Now they are raising hue and cry against EVMs," he said. Prasad also noted that after the recent Bihar elections, "not one plea" was received to check the micro-controllers of EVMs.