PM taunts Congress for poor show in MLC polls

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a dig at the Congress party for its dismal show in the MLC elections held across four States despite the use of paper ballots, a key demand of Opposition parties in their campaign against EVMs. Following Modi several BJP leaders and NDA partners taunted the Opposition, which has been demanding that all future elections be held using ballot papers and not the EVMs.

“MLC elections in 28 seats across 4 big States - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka. Elections held using ballot papers. Guess how many seats Congress won?” Modi said in a social media post.

The Congress drew a blank in Karnataka while the BJP won five legislative council seats in Uttar Pradesh and the Samajwadi Party three seats in the biennial elections held in 28 constituencies across four States.

Elections to the six teachers’ and five graduates’ constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, four each in Bihar, two each in Karnataka, and three graduates’ and two teachers’ constituencies in Maharashtra were held on October 23. Only graduate and teacher voters are eligible to participate in these elections.

In Maharashtra, the BJP-led ruling Mahayuti was leading in three seats while the Opposition NCP (SP) was ahead in two seats. The Jan Suraaj Party opened its account in Bihar, where the BJP, the JD(U), the RJD and an Independent have won a seat each. The Congress suffered a setback in Karnataka, losing all four seats with the Opposition JD(S) wresting one segment from the ruling party and its ally BJP retaining three.

Taking a swipe at the Congress, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw at a Cabinet press on Wednesday said, “Some people don’t even want to understand whether the elections should be held using ballot papers or otherwise. Look at what happened in Karnataka — they used ballot papers and the BJP won all four seats.” Veteran BJP leader BS Yediyurappa said the NDA’s victory in the Karnataka MLC elections was a glaring example of informed voters debunking the allegations of vote theft by the Congress. The former Chief Minister demanded that CM DK Shivakumar step down in the wake of the poll results.

Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar said the Congress would respectfully accept the people’s verdict in the Legislative Council elections for four seats, acknowledging that the party fell short of its expectations and would undertake a detailed review of the results.

JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha also took a swipe at the Congress, claiming that the party failed to win any of the 28 seats it contested, including seats held by its sitting members in Bihar and Karnataka.