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Hold all elections by ballot paper: Cong hits back at Modi’s jibe as Dhruv Rathee cites BJP’s Varanasi defeat

The BJP’s performance was mixed, as it won all three seats it contested in Karnataka and five in UP, but suffered setbacks in Bihar and faced a strong challenge from the Samajwadi Party in UP, while the BJP-JD(S) alliance won all four seats it contested in Karnataka, including one wrested from the Congress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe at the Congress over its performance in recent Legislative Council (MLC) elections conducted using paper ballots has triggered a fresh political exchange, with Congress MP Pawan Khera challenging him to hold all elections by ballot paper and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee arguing that the focus should instead be on alleged irregularities in voter lists.

In a post on X on October 28, Modi pointed out that 28 MLC seats had been contested across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka using paper ballots, and asked how many seats the Congress had won. The party failed to secure any of the 12 seats it contested, while the BJP won nine of the 21 seats it contested.

Khera responded that if the Prime Minister had confidence in the ballot system, Lok Sabha and Assembly elections should also be conducted using paper ballots, turning Modi’s remark against the Congress into a challenge to his own position on electoral transparency.

Rathee, meanwhile, questioned the emphasis on voting machines and paper ballots, arguing that allegations concerning electoral rolls deserved greater scrutiny. In his response to Modi, he alleged that voter-list manipulation was the real issue and referred to the BJP’s defeat in the Varanasi Teachers’ constituency, although the Prime Minister’s parliamentary constituency is Varanasi.

The results themselves presented a mixed picture for the BJP. It won all three seats it contested in Karnataka and five in Uttar Pradesh, while the BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance secured all four seats it contested in Karnataka, including one wrested from the Congress.

In Bihar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) defeated BJP veteran Naval Kishor Yadav in the Patna Teachers’ constituency, which he had represented for three decades. Jan Suraaj won one seat, while an Independent secured another.

Uttar Pradesh produced a significant setback for the BJP, as the Samajwadi Party (SP) won three seats, including the Varanasi Teachers’ constituency, a politically symbolic victory in the Lok Sabha constituency represented by Modi since 2014. The SP also won the Agra-Aligarh Teachers’ and Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates’ constituencies.

The counting process was accompanied by allegations of irregularities. The SP accused the Election Commission of delaying the victory certificate for its Varanasi candidate, Lal Bihari Yadav, while its concerns also extended to Gorakhpur, where BJP candidate Dhruv Tripathi won by a margin of 307 votes after counting reportedly continued for more than 32 hours.

Despite the mixed results, Modi expressed confidence in the BJP’s prospects for the 2029 Lok Sabha election, claiming that the party would win again and surpass its previous records.

However, MLC elections differ substantially from parliamentary and Assembly polls. They involve limited electorates of registered graduates and teachers, rather than the general electorate, and use a preferential voting system in which voters rank candidates and votes may be transferred during counting.

The exchange has therefore widened the political debate beyond the Congress’s performance, bringing competing arguments over ballot papers, EVMs, voter lists and the credibility of India’s electoral process back into focus.