Candidates Concerned About Safety of EVMs

Vijayawada: Several candidates from both the YSRC and the three-party alliance in AP are apprehensive about safety of EVMs, which were secured and placed in the strongrooms.

This fear is mainly in relation to Rayalaseema in view of the series of incidents in the region during and after Monday’s polling.

These contestants felt the state administration failed to control the poll-related violence. The post-poll scenario was worse in areas like Anantapur, Annamaiah, Tadipatri, Chandragiri, Macherla, Narasaraopeta etc, they noted.

“Even as we were delighted that there was a huge turnout of voters - 81.86 per cent polling in the state - the violent incidents were very unfortunate.”

BJP nominee from Dharmavaram Y. Satya Kumar said, “We are very much concerned about the safety of EVMs in view of the violence. I am keeping a trusted man at the strong room on behalf of me at Lepakshi to keep a close watch on the sealed EVMs.”

Earlier, Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena announced that the EVMs were secured in 350 strongrooms in 33 locations across the state. These have been provided with a three-tier security cover including the deployment of central forces alongside the local police especially at the entry level. “There is also electronic surveillance,” he said, and sounded confident there would be no safety lapse.

There was an assault on Chandragiri Assembly segment TD nominee Pulaparthi Venkata Mani Prasad when he was trying to visit the strongroom at the Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam in Tirupati on May 14. The culprits were arrested.

Rajahmundry Rural YSRC nominee and minister Srinviasa Venugopal Krishna said, “We are fortunate that we don’t have such issues in this region. The EVMs are secured in the strongrooms at Adikavi Nannaya University and no one here encourages violence.”

Telugu Desam chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu, in a statement on Thursday, sought an inquiry to find out how some police officers failed to maintain law and order in several areas. “They failed to control the YSRC rowdies,” he said and expressed concern over the way the violence even reached Visakhapatnam.

Rajahmundry Rural Assembly segment nominee from Telugu Desam, Gorantla Butchaiah Choudhary said, “The YSRC leaders and supporters are acting in frustration. They are causing violence in several parts of the state.”

Kaikaluru Assembly segment BJP nominee Kamineni Srinvasa Rao said, “Poll-related violence should be condemned by all. Fortunately we are not having any issues on safety of EVMs at the strongrooms in our area.”