EVM snag mars Kairana poll, EC blames it on heat

Lucknow: EVM glitches in Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur Assembly seat, followed by allegations of rigging by the Opposition marked the polling on both the seats on Monday.

The Kairana Lok Sabha seat recorded 54.17 per cent polling till 6 pm and the Noorpur Assembly seat recorded 61 per cent polling till 6 pm.

The Election Commission has sought a report from the district returning officer about more than 30 polling booths where polling was disrupted for more than two hours and a decision about repolling will be taken later.

The chief electoral officer L. Venkateswar Lu said that EVM malfunctioning was due to extreme heat wave conditions. He said only 15 per cent of the EVMs reported malfunctioning and were promptly replaced.

A BJP delegation led by vice-president J.P.S. Rathore also met the chief electoral officer and sought replacement of faulty EVMs and possible repolling on booths where polling had been stalled for a longer period. The BJP submitted a list of 67 booths in Kairana where polling had been disrupted.

In Kairana, RLD candidate Tabassum Hassan filed a complaint alleging that around 175 voting machines were malfunctioning. Most of the polling stations in the constituency saw a sluggish pace of voting after over 10 voting machines stopped working in the morning. Voters who had queued up to cast their votes were seen getting restive due to extreme heat conditions and lack of basic amenities like tents and water.

She told reporters that it cannot be without design that EVM machines of only Muslim booths in mixed localities were developing snags, for instance booth number 98 in Bannat village and booth number 41 and 42 in VV inter college in Shamli.