E-Paper
Lok Sabha elections 2019: Jumbo EVMs, not ballot papers, for Nizamabad seat with 185 contestants
Out of 185 contestants, as many as 178 farmers filed nominations to highlight their demand for remunerative prices for turmeric and red jowar crops. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha is seeking a second term from Nizamabad.
The Election Commission on Sunday decided to conduct elections to the Nizamabad parliamentary constituency in Telangana using jumbo-sized Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in place of ballot papers.
The EC sent instructions to this effect to Telangana chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar, who had earlier made the same recommendation, as 185 contestants were in fray for this particular seat.
According to an official release, the EC asked the state authorities to procure M-3 sized EVMs for the polling instead of ballot papers. It directed the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) for immediate supply of 26,820 ballot units (BUs), 2240 control units (CUs) and 2600 VVPATs of M3 make for the elections.
Out of 185 contestants, as many as 178 farmers filed nominations to highlight their demand for remunerative prices for turmeric and red jowar crops. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha is seeking a second term from Nizamabad.
Each EVM can accommodate only 16 names and the control unit can record the voting of only four such EVMs linked together, which means, each control unit can register a maximum of 64 candidates.
In all, Nizamabad has a total number of 1.5 million voters.
In the 1996 Lok Sabha elections in Nalgonda constituency, a record number of 480 candidates filed their nominations in protest against lack of safe drinking water for the fluoride affected villages of the district. The EC had to conduct the elections with a jumbo-sized ballot paper, instead of EVMs.
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