From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Dec 15: Though Karnataka’s assembly polls are five months away, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has joined the chorus against Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and expressed apprehensions that they could be tampered with to negate the mandate of the people.

The Chief Minister has publicly demanded that ballot papers must be used in the forthcoming Legislative Assembly elections in the State.

"We will meet and write to the Election Commission on this," he said and declared: "We demand that elections in Karnataka be conducted using ballot papers."

Siddaramaiah in Raichur

Apprehensions about possible tampering of EVMs through Bluetooth technology was raised by the opposition Congress during the Assembly elections in Gujarat, which the Election Commission had termed "baseless."

The Congress and other political parties, especially Aam Admi Party (AAP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have doubted about the credibility of EVMs during recently concluded civic polls in Uttar Pradesh and assembly elections earlier this year.

Speaking to reporters in Raichur, the Chief Minister said, "What we are saying is go back to the old (ballot paper) system. What is the difficulty? Let the Election Commission, which is a constitutional body, conduct the elections in a free and fair manner."

The Chief Minister said he had discussed the issue of EVMs with some experts and they said there were chances that the EVMs could be tampered with.

He said several countries have gone back from EVMs to ballot papers and there is no harm in going back to the ballot paper system.

The Chief Minister demanded that ballot papers must be used during the next year’s assembly polls in the State. "All that we want is that people’s mandate should be respected and not interfered with," he said.

Siddaramaiah ruled out any impact of Gujarat poll results on Karnataka and said the issues in the State were totally different.

"Results of any state will not have any impact on the results of another state....issues there are different from our state. So there is no relation to one another. So it cannot be said," he said.

Asked about the exit polls predicting a win for the BJP in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, Siddaramaiah said the counting is yet to happen, adding, "this are just exit polls."

"There are various instances where exit polls have gone wrong. Let's see what happens on December 18," he said.

Alleging that the Election Commission was under the control of the BJP government, he said NDA government had appointed the Chief Election Commissioner.

Transport Minister H M Revanna, has in his twitter post, too said that it was better to hold elections in Karnataka using ballot papers.