I would like to remind Congress that the decision to shift from paper ballots to EVMs was taken because of a larger… https://t.co/PfbjIzihfX — ANI (@ANI) 1521311969000

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NEW DELHI: The BJP has said that it is open to discussions on reverting to use of paper ballots, instead of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), in future elections if if there was consensus among other parties on the matter.The ruling party's change in tack came on a day its biggest political rival, the Congress , urged the Election Commission to reintroduce paper ballots in future elections ."I would like to remind Congress that the decision to shift from paper ballots to EVMs was taken because of a larger consensus. Now today, if every party think that we should return to paper ballots again, after due discussion, we can consider," BJP general secretary Ram Madhav told ANI Saturday night.Several political parties have alleged that EVMs are being tampered with ahead of polls, and demanded reintroduction of the ballot paper system of voting.The Congress moved a resolution in this regard at its 84th plenary session yesterday. Citing other major democracies that have adopted paper ballots, the party called for reverting to the old practice to help restore the credibility of the electoral process.Reliability of EVMs has come under scrutiny in recent months, following reports that several voting machines were recording votes only for the BJP, irrespective of the button pressed, during the Uttar Pradesh civic polls in November.Although officials replaced the "faulty" machine, claiming it was a "malfunction", non-BJP parties alleged that machines had been tampered with.Soon after the UP assembly polls in March 2017, in which the saffron party got an unprecedented mandate of 325 seats out of 403, opposition parties levelled serious charges of EVM tampering, so much so that the Election Commission had to eventually defend the machines.