ECI declares Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat polling to be held using EVMs

Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has instructed the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer to make arrangements for conducting Lok Sabha elections to Nizamabad parliamentary constituency using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

"The Election Commission of India has issued instructions to the CEO, Telangana to make arrangements for conduct elections to Nizamabad PC using EVMs.  The Commission has also issued orders to M/s ECIL for immediate supply of 26820 BUs, 2240 CUs and 2600 VVPATs of M3 make to CEO Telangana," according to an official statement.

The ECI's decision has come after it was decided that ballot papers were to be used in view of the presence of 185 candidates in the fray.

The decision was taken owing to the inability of present EVM models to be used for such a large number of candidates.

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar had said, "There are 185 contestants in the fray in Nizamabad so we will be conducting elections using ballot papers. Once Form 7A is received, printing of ballot paper will be taken up. "

"Ballot papers have been used in the state in 1996 and 2010 and also in the recent Gram Panchayat elections held in January 2019. We are using M2Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) machines also. These can only take 63 in addition to NOTA," he added.

All 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana will go to polls in a single phase on April 11. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.

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