As counting of votes for Karnataka Assembly elections progresses, early trends indicate a clear majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party with the ruling Congress heading to a major debacle.
JD(S), which was expected to be the kingmaker, also fared well, comparing to the last 2013 elections, with the party leading in over 40 seats.
Staring at a major electoral defeat, the Congress on Tuesday raked up the EVM tampering issue and said all political parties had expressed doubts over the Electronic Voting Machines.
“I am saying it from day one, there is no political party in India which has not raised questions on EVMs. Even BJP has done it in the past. Now when all parties are doubting EVMs, what problem does BJP have in conducting polls through ballot?,” asked Congress leader Mohan Prakash.
Senior Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed also raised doubts about the integrity of elections conducted through EVMs. He said the issue needs to be analysed properly since the number of seats the party was getting in Karnataka could not be explained on the basis of the vote percentage that it had got.
He pointed out that that the vote percentage of the Congress and the BJP was the same, but there was a difference in the number of seats.
The Congress has been, since the Assembly elections in early 2017, when it won Punjab but met with a humiliating defeat in Uttar Pradesh, raising doubts about EVMs. The political resolution passed by the AICC Plenary in March this year also demanded that a return to ballots be made.
As per the latest trends in Karnataka, BJP is leading over 100 seats in Karnataka while the Congress is leading in over 70 seats. Congress had won 122 seats in the 2013 elections. In a major embarrassment to the ruling party, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was defeated by JD(S) candidiate G.T. Devegowda in Chamundeswari seat.