Nizamabad to vote through EVMs

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday instructed the state officials to conduct polls in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency through EVMs. However, the election commission is yet to decide whether the polling will be held on April 11 or not.

The ECI also directed the state officials to make arrangements using 26,820 balloting units (BU), 2,240 control units (CU) and 2,600 VVPATs supplied by Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL).

Earlier, the district polling officials had got in touch with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to prepare for huge scale EVM requirement for the Lok Sabha election and the district administration had sent a report to the ECI about the same.

As per the report, each EVM can accommodate only 16 symbols for 16 candidates. But, in Nizamabad, a total of 185 candidates are in fray (179 of them are farmers). Based on that calculation, Nizamabad constituency would need 12 EVMs at each polling centre.

Nizamabad constituency covers seven assembly segments with 1,788 polling



centres and they would require about 22,000 EVMs to conduct elections.

The polling centres also need to have space to accommodate at least half a dozen tables and all the EVMs will be connected to one single unit.

There is also need to appoint more polling staff and agents for duty.

As per the ECI rules, if more than 64 nominations are filed from any constituency, the state authorities have to inform the Central Election Commission about the same and take their permission to conduct elections through EVM. Officials say that under the existing circumstances, a total of 384 candidates can be accommodated for polling through EVMs.

Meanwhile, few turmeric farmers who have filed nomination papers from Nizamabad constituency started their election campaign on Sunday.

As per the ECI rules, if more than 64 nominations are filed from any constituency, the state authorities have to inform CEC about the same and take their permission to conduct polls through EVM.