Karnataka Government Seeks to Revert to Ballot Papers for Local Polls

Following up on a decision to revert from EVMs to ballot papers for local polls, the Karnataka government has decided to introduce a bill in the forthcoming budget session of the legislature to facilitate the reversion. A meeting of the state cabinet this week approved the introduction of the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to do away with EVMs for local polls in villages and to revert to the older system of casting votes on ballot papers. “To ensure transparency and confidentiality in the election process of local authorities, the government has decided to conduct the elections of local bodies through ballot papers and ballot boxes as before and henceforth to do away with the process of Electronic Voting Machines. “It has also been decided to entrust the State Election Commission with the responsibility of preparing the electoral roll to make this process credible, transparent and free,” the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah noted. The Cabinet has decided to present the bill in both the Houses of the legislature, Law Minister H K Patil said. The Karnataka State Election Commission had announced last month that the upcoming polls for the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will be held using ballot paper. The elections are expected after May this year. “There are two best practices. Ballot papers have been used since the beginning. For the past 20-30 years, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been used. There is no Act or Supreme Court order that bars ballot papers,” State Election Commissioner G S Sangreshi said. Last year, amid the allegation of ‘vote chori’ made by the Congress, the Cabinet of the Congress-led government in Karnataka had decided to recommend that the State Election Commission should switch to ballot paper for all elections conducted by it. The SEC conducts polls for rural local bodies such as zilla, taluk and gram panchayats, and urban local bodies such as municipal corporations, city municipal councils, town municipal councils and town panchayats. “All upcoming elections for local bodies will have ballot papers rather than Electronic Voting Machines,” Law Minister Patil had stated last year. The Cabinet had also decided last year to recommend empowering the SEC to prepare and revise voter rolls for various local bodies, as compared to the use of rolls prepared for Assembly elections for local body elections.