Ballot-Paper Polls Give BJP a Fresh Attack as Counting Continues

Zero seats. That is the Congress’s total across the 12 constituencies it contested in Legislative Council elections across four states, with counting still underway in some places Wednesday. The result gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP a fresh argument against Congress claims of “vote chori,” because the polls used ballot papers, not electronic voting machines^1,10.

Ballot papers were central to the BJP’s response. Modi asked on X how many seats the Congress had won, while BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the result weakened the party’s complaints about electronic voting machines^2,4. Karnataka delivered the sharpest blow: the BJP and its ally, the Janata Dal (Secular), won all four seats, including a Bengaluru seat the Congress had held. JD(S) candidate A.P. Ranganath beat five-time winner Puttanna by 908 votes^14,18.

Those four Karnataka seats matter, but they do not decide whether the Congress government stays in power. They represent teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies, a narrower group of voters than in a state-wide election. BJP leaders called the sweep a sign of trouble for Congress before the 2028 Assembly election; Congress leaders warned against treating the result as a verdict on the whole government. The BJP and JD(S) had also improved their coordination, helping them share support among candidates^3,14.

The claim about 2028 is disputed. Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar accepted that voters had sent his party a message and said Congress would study what went wrong; state Congress chief B.K. Hariprasad also accepted the loss^9,17. Shivakumar renewed the party’s demand for paper ballots and raised concerns about names removed from voter lists, while saying Congress would decide its next steps after reviewing the results¹⁶. The party’s November 1 rally in Delhi against changes to voter lists is now set to take place amid the BJP’s taunts¹.