Bhopal: All polling booths in Madhya Pradesh will see the deployment of VVPAT machines along with EVMs in the upcoming state assembly elections, said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) OP Rawat on Tuesday.
Rawat who was in Bhopal on Tuesday to take stock of the poll preparations and said that from now on every election will see the use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines and all 230 Assembly constituencies in MP will have the machines to ensure there’s no foul play.
On being asked whether seven seconds is too less a period for seeing the vote feedback on VVPAT machines, the CEC pointed to his wristwatch to say it was enough for a voter to cross-check the feedback after polling their vote.
The VVPAT machines that would be put to use in the upcoming poll processes in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh would display a slip with the vote that one has cast for a brief period of seven seconds.
After the seven seconds, this slip would automatically drop into a box with a beep sound to indicate that the voting process is over for you.
Clarifying the Election Commission’s stand on the deletion of 6.67 lakh voters from the electoral rolls in Madhya Pradesh recently, Rawat said that it was a continuous process to keep electoral rolls error free by removing dead and shifted voters. “A past exercise at pan India-level detected three crore such voters,” he claimed.
Speaking on simultaneous elections, the retired IAS officer said that the mammoth exercise would not only require an amendment in the law and Constitution, but also check the availability of sufficient machines, staff and security forces.
On the Communist Party’s demand of shunting RSS-affiliate government staffers from poll duties, Rawat confirmed that such a request was received and the commission would look into it.
Earlier, senior CPI leader Shailendra Kumar Shaily, while leading a delegation to the CEC, had said, “The MP government has allowed its staffers to take part in RSS activities, these people can tamper with the election process.”
The party also sought physical verification of those households that have 25 or more voters enrolled in the electoral roll. Congress, too, had made similar appeals to the CEC.
“We apprised the CEC about large numbers of fake voters detected during the Mungaoli and Kolaras by-elections and also raised the issue of the deletion of 6.67 lakh voters from the electoral rolls,” said a Congress leader.
Without naming opposition Congress, the BJP delegation met Rawat and told the media that they have requested the commission to clear the air over “propaganda” behind the deletion of 7 lakh names from voter lists, saying it was no scam but a continuous process to correct the voter lists.
“We also suggested certain improvements in the voter list preparation,” BJP leader Vijesh Lunawat said.
The CEC also held an internal meeting with staffers of the MP Chief Election Office to take stock of their poll preparedness in the election year.
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