EVM-ballot paper voting in Maharashtra polls?

Mumbai: In a development with wide-ranging ramifications, Maharashtra Speaker Nana F. Patole on Tuesday asked the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to look into the feasibility of giving people the option to vote either through the Electronic Voting Machine or the traditional ballot papers by enacting a suitable law.

The option could be for the State Assembly elections - due in 2024, and polls for the local bodies like Municipal Corporations and Councils, Zilla Parishads and Gram Panchayats, which are conducted periodically.

"Under Art. 328 of the Indian Constitution, the States are empowered to make such a provision with respect to the Assembly elections For this, the state government would have to enact a suitable legislation," Patole told IANS.

Patole's directives came during the hearing of a petition to this effect submitted by Nagpur-based lawyers Pradeep M. Uke and Satish Uke in the Vidhan Bhavan this afternoon. In the memorandum, the Ukes have urged the Speaker - a senior Congress leader from Vidarbha - that the citizens should be given the option and the right to exercise their franchise through either EVMs or ballot papers during elections.