The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has seized on the Legislative Council election results across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Bihar to challenge the Congress’s allegations of electoral irregularities and its demand to return to ballot paper voting. The party argued that the opposition’s poor performance in the results and trends, despite the use of ballot papers and ballot boxes, highlighted the limits of its claims against Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the attack on Wednesday, October 28, drawing attention to the voting method used in the 28-seat Legislative Council elections across the four states. His remarks turned the Congress’s longstanding criticism of EVMs into a political challenge, questioning whether a change in the voting system would improve the party’s electoral fortunes.

BJP leaders subsequently intensified the criticism, arguing that electoral defeats could not automatically be attributed to EVMs or the Election Commission. The party maintained that winning elections ultimately depended on public support, organisational strength and the ability to connect with voters rather than repeatedly questioning the voting mechanism.

BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Congress had failed to make an impact in the ballot-paper-based elections, using the results to counter the party’s allegations of vote theft. He argued that the outcome exposed weaknesses in the Congress’s electoral strategy and suggested that the party needed to focus on building public support instead of blaming the electoral process.

BJP president Nitin Nabin also criticised the Congress’s performance, asserting that the electorate continued to favour Prime Minister Modi’s leadership irrespective of whether elections were conducted using EVMs or ballot papers. Other BJP leaders, including Pralhad Joshi, Hardeep Singh Puri and Pradeep Bhandari, echoed the argument that the Congress could not blame voting technology for its repeated setbacks.

The BJP’s criticism gained particular traction in Karnataka, where the BJP-JD(S) alliance swept all four Legislative Council seats in the results reported on Wednesday. The BJP retained three constituencies, while the JD(S) wrested the Bengaluru Teachers’ seat from the ruling Congress. The outcome provided the opposition alliance with a significant political advantage in a state governed by the Congress.

In Bihar, the Congress failed to secure a victory among the seats it contested in the initial results, including the Darbhanga Teachers’ constituency, where the Jan Suraaj Party defeated a sitting Congress MLC. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP secured multiple victories while the Samajwadi Party also won key constituencies. Maharashtra produced a more mixed contest, with the BJP-led Mahayuti and opposition parties competing for the available seats.

The BJP’s central argument was that the Congress’s demand for ballot paper voting did not, by itself, address the reasons behind its electoral difficulties. By highlighting the Legislative Council polls, the party sought to shift the debate from allegations of EVM manipulation to questions about the Congress’s political organisation, voter outreach and electoral strategy.

Nevertheless, the ballot-paper results gave the BJP a fresh political counterargument against the Congress’s allegations. The party used the episode to argue that changing the voting method alone would not resolve the opposition’s electoral challenges, placing the focus instead on its ability to win voters’ confidence.