After extending their support to a consideration by the Election Commission to ban opinion polls as they apparently mislead voters, the Congress has sought another ban, this time on Electronic Voting Machines with multiple buttons on similar grounds.

“Electronic Voting Machines with multiple buttons are very likely to leave the voter confused and lost. Not only do they mislead the voter, but they also end up wasting a lot of time as the voter has to scan the length and breadth of the EVM to finally high-five his hand with the one on the EVM..err..cast his franchise,” opined Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi.

When asked about what is permissible during election time, Alvi said, “We have no problems if there are reality shows like Bigg Boss and Indian Idol running during election days. A lot of people will cast their vote for participants over there and voter turnout for the general elections will dwindle. But the important point is that because of this, the number of voters that could be misled into voting against a party, will also significantly reduce.”

Congress president Sonia Gandhi too has expressed her unhappiness over EVMs with multiple buttons. “My dear friend Subramanian Swamy has asserted that EVMs can be very easily manipulated and tampered with. Such being the case, it is imperative that multiple buttons be disabled and single-button EVMs come into effect,” Gandhi is supposed to have remarked. Sources say that the Congress president would soon be writing a letter to PM Manmohan Singh in this regard.

“If the EC does not comply with this request, the next option would be to consider a ban on elections itself as citizens of this country get easily misled into booting the government out,” said Congress leader Ajay Maken, before looking askance and hurriedly running away after spotting a bearded man rolling up his sleeves and walking towards him.