Maya, Akhilesh bat for ballot papers

Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati Tuesday demanded that the upcoming Lok Sabha polls be held using ballot papers instead of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The demand comes after a self-proclaimed US-based Indian cyber expert Monday made a sensational claim that the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were "rigged" through the EVMs, which, he said, can be hacked.

"The latest revelations have made the doubts on the EVMs more serious. It is better under such conditions that the future elections, especially the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, be conducted using ballot papers which can be verified at three levels unlike the EVMs," she said in a statement issued here.

Latching on to the claim by a US-based cyber expert that the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were "rigged", Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Tuesday questioned the use of electronic voting machines when even the more advanced nations were not using them.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party government was weakening democratic institutions. It is using them to suppress dissent and the voice of the opposition, he said.

"Why does a country like Japan, which is very advanced in science and technology, is not using the EVMs? The question should be raised among the nation's 130 crore people, the SP chief said here.