Nizamabad situation a first: Election Commission of India

Hyderabad: Nizamabad will be the first Lok Sabha constituency in the country since the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were introduced to use 12 such units at each polling station, said senior deputy election commissioner Mr Umesh Sinha.

The election commission will deploy 600 engineers and national-level trainers in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency who will stay back till the voting is over on May 11.

Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency has 1,788 polling stations spread across seven Assembly segments.

According to Mr Sinha, the number of polling stations assigned to sector officers has been decreased from 10 to 5 to facilitate better monitoring. Apart from this, zonal staff, supervisory officials and special observers have been appointed to ensure free and fair election, he said.

Mr Sinha said the Election Commission has already dispatched the first batch of EVMs. The first level of checking would begin on Wednesday and would be completed by Thursday afternoon.

Mr Sinha said the set up at each polling station would include 12 EVMs, four ballot units and one control unit as there were 185 candidates in the fray. He said if situation required, two such arrangements could be made in a polling station.

As many as 26,820 ballot units, 2,240 control units and 2,600 VVPATs will be used in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency.

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