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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (October 28) took aim at the Congress party, which has fared poorly in the Legislative Council elections held in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka. He wrote on X that elections for 28 Member of Legislative Council (MLC) seats took place in four states using “paper ballots”, and then he asked, “Guess how many seats Congress won?” 

The Congress party has hit back, with party MP Pawan Khera saying that if the prime minister had “confidence” in the voting system, the country should switch to paper ballots for all elections.

The prime minister’s question was meant to send the message that the Congress party does not win elections in which paper ballots are used. This was a dig at the opposition party’s longstanding demanding to switch from Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) to paper ballots for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

The prime minister’s own party has raised this demand repeatedly before it came to power in 2014.

The prime minister’s post was also a dig at the Congress party’s performance in these elections, where the results are still being tallied.

The Congress party has contested on 12 of the 28 seats – 5 in Bihar, 3 in Maharashtra, 4 in Karnataka and none in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP, on the other hand, contested 21 of the 28 MLC seats – 11 in Uttar Pradesh, 4 in Bihar, 3 in Karnataka and 3 in Maharashtra.

While the Congress could not open its account, the BJP has scored 5 in Uttar Pradesh, all 3 in Karnataka and 1 in Bihar.

Counting is still underway in Maharashta on all the seats.

The Congress has faced an upset in Karnataka in particular, where the BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance won all five seats it contested on, including one it has wrested away from the Congress.

The BJP, too, has been caught off-guard in Bihar, with Naval Kishore, who has held the Patna Teachers’ seat for 30 for the party years losing this time.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has won four seats so far – the Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers’ seat, the Lucknow Teachers’ constituency and both the Teachers’ and Graduates’ constituencies in Meerut-Saharanpur.

Further, the Samajwadi Party, a member of the INDIA bloc, appears on track to secure the........

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