The Congress on Wednesday demanded that the upcoming local body elections in Maharashtra be conducted using VVPAT machines to ensure transparency in the voting process.

If the deployment of VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines is not feasible, the elections to rural and urban civic bodies should be held using ballot papers, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Vijay Wadettiwar said, according to the PTI.

He was reacting to State Election Commissioner (SEC) Dinesh Waghmare's remarks on Tuesday that VVPATs would not be used in the local body polls due to logistical challenges, including a large number of candidates in each ward and requirement for electors to cast four votes at one time, reported the PTI.