NEW DELHI: Congress said BJP stood in “splendid isolation” at the meeting of political parties with the Election Commission on Monday, where over 90% national and regional parties sought a ceiling on election expenditure of parties, and more than 70% demanded that the EC revert to holding polls using paper ballots.

“There is no dilution in Congress’s demand to reintroduce ballot papers from the next election. We also said that if the EC cites a shortage of time to execute this for the 2019 elections, it should ensure that at least 30% EVMs and VVPAT paper trails are sampled and verified,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

Among the parties that attended and backed the capping of expenditure by political parties and the reversal to paper ballots included AAP, Trinamool Congress, AIADMK, CPM, CPI, Samajwadi Party, BSP, Forward Bloc, NCP, and RJD.

Those opposing both motions included BJP, Shiromani Akali Dal, JD(U) and BJD.

Meanwhile, the EC said it would provide a “satisfactory solution” to the concerns raised by political parties on the infallibility of electronic voting machines (EVMs). Talking to reporters after the meeting, chief election commissioner O P Rawat said parties had urged the commission to link Aadhaar numbers with electors’ details for better electoral roll management.

He said they had also expressed concern on the paid news and suggested it should be made an electoral offence, and asked the commission to grant free airtime to political parties on private media for electoral campaigns on the lines of AIR and DD. “We will definitely look into all the suggestions given by them and there will be a satisfactory solution to them,” Rawat said.

The CEC also said political parties welcomed the discussion on steps taken to facilitate voting for differently-abled persons. The EC had convened the meeting ahead of elections to several state assemblies later this year and the Lok Sabha polls scheduled for early next year.

Singhvi drew attention to the alleged “naked dance of money in electioneering” and the need for capping of expenditure by political parties during elections. Alleging a “patent circumvention” most misused by the ruling BJP, Singhvi said, “Currently, there is a limit on poll expenses by a candidate in Lok Sabha and state assemblies but there is no limit on the expenses made by a political party during elections.”

The Congress leader also said BJP was the only party that opposed capping of election expenses. According to sources, a BJP representative said it would be unviable to cap election expenses in the “era of crowdfunding”.

The principal opposition party also demanded to weed out of duplicate and false voters from the voter's list to ensure free and fair elections. Alleging 60 lakh duplicate names in the Madhya Pradesh voters list and 45 lakh in Rajasthan, Singhvi said the EC had acknowledged 24 lakh fake voters in the electoral rolls.

