Elections for 28 MLC seats took place on October 23, with the BJP and its allies winning 16 seats. These polls use paper ballots because EVMs cannot record ranked preferences. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Congress party’s poor performance mocked its own long-standing demand to return to paper ballots.
MLC elections use proportional representation through a single transferable vote. Voters rank candidates instead of picking just one. EVMs are built for "first-past-the-post elections" in India in which voter chooses one candidate, so they cannot record ranked preferences
Elections were held to 28 seats for Members of Legislative Council (MLC) on October 23. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 13 of the 28 seats across four states while its NDA alliance partners -- Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), Janata Dal (United) and Janata Dal (Secular) -- won one seat each, taking the coalition's tally to 16. The Congress won only a single seat in Maharashtra. Polling for MLC seats is done through paper ballots. The Congress' poll performance evoked a public ridicule from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who took a direct swipe at the party's long-standing campaigns against Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and its persistent demand to return to paper ballots.