The Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated the commissioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) for upcoming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Voting is scheduled for 234 Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu and 152 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, alongside bye-elections in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The commissioning process for the Phase one elections in these states commenced with the presence of candidates or their representatives and General Observers.
Commissioning involves conducting a mock poll of 1,000 votes in 5% of the EVMs selected randomly by the candidates or their representatives. The EVMs were allocated to their designated polling stations through a two-stage randomization process using the EVM management System before the commissioning. In the first stage, EVMs were randomly assigned from District level warehouses to Assembly Constituencies, followed by random allocation from the Assembly Constituencies to the polling station level in the second stage.
The total number of polling stations for Phase-I elections is 75,064 in Tamil Nadu and 44,378 in West Bengal. The First Randomization of EVMs was carried out by District Election Officers (DEOs) in the presence of representatives from National and State recognized political parties, as per ECI directives. Subsequently, the Second randomization was done by Returning Officers in the presence of contesting candidates/agents and General Observers for the upcoming elections in these states and bye-elections in Gujarat and Maharashtra on April 23. The constituency-wise lists of first randomised EVMs and VVPATs were shared with representatives of all political parties at district headquarters.
EVMs and VVPATs, after randomization, were stored in Assembly Strong Rooms in the presence of representatives from National and State recognized political parties. The lists of first and second randomised EVMs and VVPATs were also shared with all contesting candidates, ensuring transparency in the electoral process.
