On 28 September 2023, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge stood before a packed hall in New Delhi and declared that India must abandon Electronic Voting Machines in favour of ballot boxes. He argued that the shift to EVMs, which began in 1982 and became mandatory for all state elections by 2003, has eroded voter confidence.
Kharge cited a recent Indian Express exposé that documented 14 formal objections lodged by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over ten months against decisions made by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar regarding the SIR process. The article highlighted the centralisation of the ECINet database, sudden changes to Form‑6 voter registration forms, and the deletion of voters during the SIR exercise.
The Congress leader’s most damning claim was that 13.3 crore voters have been removed from the electoral rolls, a number he described as "shocking". He said the bulk of these removals stem from an opaque SIR system that the EC has used to excise names without clear evidence.
Kharge also attacked the 2023 Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners Bill, which transferred the appointment of the CEC from the Election Commission to a minister and granted lifetime immunity to the CEC and other commissioners. He warned that the bill effectively shields the EC from judicial scrutiny.
In response, the ruling party is slated to defend the use of EVMs and the new Bill in the next parliamentary session, where committee hearings will likely probe the EC’s independence. The opposition’s call for paper ballots is poised to become a central debate point in the upcoming sessions.