Ahmedabad, Apr 9 (PTI) Alleging that the BJP won the Maharashtra assembly polls through a “fraud” like never before, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday made a strong pitch for having elections on ballot paper.

Addressing the AICC session here, Kharge also accused the Modi government of “selling off” government assets to benefit crony capitalists and finishing democracy slowly.

“The whole world is moving from EVMs to ballot paper but we are using EVMs. This is all fraud. They ask us to prove it. You have devised such techniques that benefit the ruling party and put the opposition at a disadvantage,” Kharge said.

But the youngsters of this country will rise and “say we want ballot paper”, he said in his inaugural address at the session being held here on the banks of the Sabarmati river.

“What happened in Maharashtra. We raised the issue everywhere, Rahul Gandhi raised the issue strongly. What kind of voter list they made…Maharashtra election was a fraud. The same thing happened in Haryana,” the Congress president said.

Kharge pointed out that the BJP won 90 per cent of the seats and said this had never happened before.

“There has never been a fraud like the one that happened in Maharashtra polls, which was aimed at destroying democracy,” Kharge charged.

“We will find out about it. The thief always gets caught. Our lawyers and leaders are working for it. We are trying that,” he said.

Kharge said in the last 11 years, the ruling party has been attacking the Constitution.

“Constitutional institutions and principles are being attacked and we have to fight to protect them,” Kharge said.

He alleged that the government ran Parliament’s Budget session according to their whims and fancies.

“The Speaker took the Leader of Oposition’s name but did not let him speak. This is shameful in a democracy. If you do not allow LoP to speak how will you let people to raise their voice,” Kharge said.

Instead of debating issues of the people, the government conducted debate till late night for its agenda of communal polarisation, Kharge said in an apparent reference to the debate on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

He pointed out that the debate on Manipur took place at 4 am and he requested that it be held the next day but the government did not agree, Kharge said and alleged that it seems the government wants to hide something.

“Democracy is being finished slowly, slowly, slowly,” Kharge alleged.

He said the opposition was not allowed to raise in Parliament the issue of imposition of tariffs by the US.

He said monopoly is being established with resources being handed to a few crony capitalists.

Kharge also alleged that SC, ST and OBC reservation was being finished through privatization.

“If this continues, the Modi government and Modi will sell off the whole country and go,” he alleged.

This government is handing over resources to its crony capitalists friends that are even against national interests, he claimed.

Kharge accused the BJP-RSS for raising 500 year-old issues to fan communalism.

The RSS chief asked its people not to look for ‘Shivlings’ under mosques but they continue to do that and divide people.

“Prime Minister Modi starts a fire and the RSS people add fuel to it,” he alleged.

He also lashed out at the BJP for having an "anti-Dalit mindset" after its leader sprinkled Ganga water at a Ram temple in Rajasthan's Alwar to "purify" it following Congress' Tikaram Jully's participation in the consecration ceremony there.

Kharge also made a strong pitch for a nationwide caste census and alleged that Prime Minister Modi uses OBC status for political gains but does not take steps for their welfare.

The Congress president also slammed the government over increasing excise duty on petrol and diesel and hiking the price of LPG cylinder.

Earlier, the Congress passed a condolence resolution, paying tributes to those Congress members who passed away after the Raipur session of February 2023.

The party paid rich tributes to former prime minister Manmohan Singh who passed away last year in December.

The Congress is holding its AICC session on the banks of the Sabarmati River here on Wednesday during which the party will present its social, political and economic views through at least two resolutions.

The Ahmedabad Session, themed "Nyaypath: Sankalp, Samarpan aur Sangharsh," is being attended by more than 1,700 elected and co-opted AICC members.

This comes a day after an extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) met here to finalise the session's agenda and discuss the resolutions to be passed at length.

Countering the BJP's high-pitched campaign of invoking nationalist figures to rally support, the Congress on Tuesday asserted its claim on the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first deputy prime minister, whose path it pledged to follow in the "ideological war" with the BJP-RSS. PTI ASK/SKC DV DV