The Opposition Congress on Wednesday demanded the Election Commission to conduct by-polls at Vijaypur and Budhni in Madhya Pradesh through the ballot paper system.
The poll body had announced on Tuesday that voting for the by-polls at Budhni and Vijaypur would be held on 13 November and results would be declared on 23 November.
MP chief electoral officer Sukhveer Singh called a meeting of all the major political parties in the state at Bhopal to discuss the elections and hear suggestions from political parties.
Representatives of four parties – the BJP, Congress, BSP and AAP — attended the meeting.
During the meeting, Congress representative J P Dhanopia requested the CEO to conduct the two by-polls through ballot paper. He suggested that ballot papers should be used in these two by-polls as a pilot project.
Dhanopia pointed out that if the by-polls are conducted by ballot paper, the doubts of people and political parties in electronic voting machines (EVM) would be cleared.
The representatives of the BSP and AAP also supported the Congress proposal.
Dhanopia said CEO Sukhveer Singh has agreed to send the proposal to ECI for a final decision.
The by-poll at Budhni has been necessitated as BJP MLA and former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has now become a Union minister after winning the Lok Sabha polls. Chouhan subsequently resigned as MLA from the MP State Assembly.
The Vijaypur by-poll was conducted after the sitting Congress MLA, Ramniwas Rawat, quit the Congress and joined the BJP during the Lok Sabha polls. He has since resigned from his MLA membership from the MP State Assembly.