E-Paper
Election office clarifies no VVPAT slips to be counted in Hadapsar
As per the Election Commission of India (ECI) guidelines, candidates are allowed to apply for inspection and verification of EVMs, burnt memory, and control units within seven days of election results being declared
The Pune District Election Office has clarified that no recount of VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) slips will be conducted during the upcoming inspection of EVMs (electronic voting machine) from the Hadapsar assembly constituency, contradicting a video posted online by Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Prashant Jagtap.
As per the Election Commission of India (ECI) guidelines, candidates are allowed to apply for inspection and verification of EVMs, burnt memory, and control units within seven days of election results being declared. In Pune, candidates from 11 of the 21 assembly constituencies had submitted applications for such verification following the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls. Five of them later withdrew their applications. Of the remaining six, four have filed election petitions in court, leaving only two applications eligible for the inspection process, scheduled between July 25 and August 2, 2025, according to deputy collector and deputy district election officer Minal Kalskar.
On Monday, Prashant Jagtap, who contested from Hadapsar (constituency 213), posted a video on social media claiming that votes recorded in EVMs at 27 polling stations in Hadapsar will be recounted, and VVPAT slips from the same booths will also be recounted during the inspection period.
However, in an official statement issued Monday, Kalskar clarified that Jagtap’s statement was factually incorrect and not in accordance with the ECI’s standard operating procedures (SOPs).
“The candidate has submitted a list of specific EVMs to be verified. These machines will be retrieved from the secure storage unit and presented in the presence of the candidate and their representatives. The result button on the control unit will be pressed to display the number of votes recorded for each candidate,” Kalskar said.
She clarified that no VVPAT slips will be recounted during this process. “The claim made by Prashant Jagtap in his video does not align with the ECI’s official SOP for EVM verification,” she said.
