New Delhi, May 4: Faced with shortage of Electronic Voting Machines due to the large number of candidates in two of the city's biggest Lok Sabha constituencies, the Election Commission has rushed in 6,000 more machines from Maharashtra. "The EVMs arrived here from Maharashtra yesterday and these will be pressed into service during May 10 polls," Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Arun Goyal said today. The crisis was triggered due to the presence of a large number of contestants in Outer Delhi (28) and East Delhi (26) constitiencies, requiring two EVMs in each of the polling stations.
There are around 3,300 polling booths in Outer Delhi alone as it is the country's most populous constituency with 34 lakh voters. The state Election Commission, which was originally allotted 12,500 EVMs, was forced to hunt for spare devices across the country. Finally, the officials zeroed in on Maharashtra where elections for all 48 Lok Sabha seats were completed in the first two phases.
"Now that we have over 18,000 EVMs, we should have no problems," Goyal said, adding adequate number of maintenance engineers would also be present to ensure that no hitches occur on polling day.
Bureau Report