RJD urges EC to hold Bihar assembly polls through ballot papers

PATNA: The main opposition in the state, RJD, on Friday reiterated its demand to defer the upcoming assembly polls due in October-November. RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said the party has already made its stand clear on the assembly polls in the wake of surge in the coronavirus cases in Bihar. “Even if the Election Commission (EC) finds it fit to conduct elections, we have demanded the use of ballot papers, instead of EVMs,” he said.
Tejashwi said the use of ballot papers will lessen the voters’ risk of contracting the virus at the polling booths. He said several other parties have also stated that people would be at great risk if elections were held under such a situation.
The RJD leader’s reactions came in the wake of EC’s directive to extend the date till August 11 for seeking comments and suggestions from political parties on the mode of electioneering. Earlier, July 31 was the deadline for this purpose.
Earlier, RJD national general secretary Abdul Bari Siddiqui had written to the EC to use ballot papers citing some studies that coronavirus remained active on plastic and metal surfaces for days. “In such a situation, will the elections by EVMs be able to stop the danger of the virus? Will paper ballots not be a safer alternative? If a decision is made to hold elections, then for public health and interests they should be held by paper ballots,” the RJD had written to the EC.
It had also suggested to reduce the voters to 250 per polling booth to maintain social distancing and other safety norms, if elections were to be held on schedule. However, the EC has said there will be 1,000 voters per polling booth.
RJD has also opposed the idea of virtual campaigning, saying the method doesn’t allow a level playing field to all contestants and the political parties. “While conducting a virtual rally, state BJP president, vice-president and 75 other party members were infected and the BJP office had to be sealed,” the letter said.
Meanwhile, the EC has decided to use VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) at each polling booth so that the voters would see which party or candidate s/he voted for. The EC has also approved the proposal for setting up over 34,000 auxiliary polling booths to restrict the voters’ number to 1000 at one booth. Authoritative sources said around 1.49 lakh VVPATs, 1.83 lakh control units and 1.83 ballot units will be required for polling in state. The tenure of this assembly comes to an end on November 29.