Village in Maharashtra seeks a return to ballot papers in future elections

Image for representation
| Photo Credit: NISSAR AHMAD

The Bahe village panchayat in Walva tehsil of Sangli district in Maharashtra on Monday passed a resolution supporting ballot papers in future elections. The panchayat expressed displeasure over the use of EVMs during the State Assembly Election held in November 2024,

Santosh Bhagwan Damame, sarpanch, said the village seeks to protect the Constitution, and it has lost faith in EVMs. “This is a decision by residents of Bahe village and our MLA, Jayant Patil, who also raised concerns about EVMs. We strongly feel that ballot papers must replace EVMs because it will restore people’s trust in the system. When foreign countries and many developing countries can use ballot papers, why is our country so stuck on EVMs?”

Bahe village has a population of around 4,500 people. The villagers in their last gram sabha meeting held a week ago, decided to go ahead and submitted the resolution to the tehsildar on Monday.  

Reduced winning margin

In December 2024, Kolewadi village in Karad (south) constituency in Satara district also resolved to use ballot papers in future elections.

Last year, villagers from Markadwadi in the Malshiras constituency in Solapur district attempted to conduct a mock poll on ballot papers, following the reduced victory margin of the NCP (SP) candidate. 

Shashikant Shivajirao Patil, a resident of Bahe village and a teacher at Islampur Vidya Mandir Higher Secondary and Junior College said, “NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil who is an 8-time MLA from Walva-Islampur and has always secured a landslide from this region, received lesser votes. At the gram sabha meetings, residents were surprised because all of us apparently voted for Mr. Patil and still his votes were reduced. The government must allow the use of ballot paper voting once.”