MP: Bus carrying polling staff, EVMs catches fire, 4 voting machines damaged, election official injured
Bhopal: A bus carrying polling staff and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) late on Tuesday night caught fire near Sonora Gaula village under Saikheda police station in Betul district.
One polling officer was injured, while four EVMs were damaged in the incident, Betul district collector Narendra Suryavamsi said on Wednesday.
The incident took place at around 11 pm when the bus carrying election officials of six polling booths and six EVMs and other poll materials was returning from Saikheda to Betul, a senior district officer said.
“While four EVMs were damaged, two others were safe”, the district collector said.
According to him, the polling staff jumped out of the burning bus by breaking glass windows.
One polling official was injured in the incident.
The fire broke out in the gearbox of the bus and spread in the bus in no time.
The driver Prakash Pawar slowed down the bus and asked the polling staff to jump out of it to save them.
He then jumped out of the bus to save himself.
The fire tenders later doused the fire.
The bus was completely gutted in the fire.
“It was just an accident”, the district collector said.
The administration arranged another bus to send the polling staff and election materials to Betul.
The chief electoral officer (CEO) of Madhya Pradesh Anupam Rajan on Wednesday said that a report on the incident was sent to the Election Commission to take a decision regarding re-polling in particular polling booths.
Nine Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh went to elections in the third phase polling on Tuesday.
The third phase polling recorded a voting percentage of 66.05, the updated figure said.
