Hyderabad, July 10: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s (TRS) ploy to inundate the Election Commission (EC) with nominations, enough to make the controversial electronic voting machines (EVMs) redundant, has worked. The EC on Friday announced that EVMs will not be used in 10 of the 12 constituencies in the Telangana region where bypolls are due on July 27. Instead, the EC will revert to the good old ballot papers and boxes.
The move came after the TRS ensured that as many Telangana activists as possible filed nominations. In 10 constituencies, the number of nominations far exceeded the 64 that an EVM could hold. In all, 986 nominations were filed in the 12 Assembly constituencies. Yellareddy topped the list with 114. However, in the Nizamabad urban constituency, where PCC president D Srinivas is in the fray, only 19 were filed. And, in Vemulawada, 49 were filed.
Technically, EVMs in a polling booth attached to one control unit cannot accommodate more than 64 symbols. If more than 64 have to be accommodated, a second control unit has to be set up which, the TRS argues, would be violative of the concept of secret ballot.
EC officials said more than 64 can be included in an EVM but then, it would take at least four months to reconfigure the machines. Given that the EC is keen on completing the elections before August 14, that is not an option on the table.
“We have anticipated this situation and contingency plans have already been prepared for using printed ballot papers in all the constituencies where the nominations are more than 64,” said Chief Electoral Officer IV Subba Rao. TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, who believes EVMs can be tampered with, had requested the EC not to use them. The party had also moved the High Court seeking a direction to the Commission against using the EVMs. The Telugu Desam is also opposed to the use of EVMs.
—Agencies