Don’t Link Arrival Of New EVMs With Early Polls In Odisha: Chief Electoral Office

Bhubaneswar: Amid speculation about early elections, the Chief Electoral Office, Odisha, on Friday clarified that there was no connection between electronic voting machines (EVMs) being supplied to the state and the timing of the twin polls.

“EVMs have a life span. Factory-made EVMs are being supplied to different states including Odisha for use in future elections,” it said, while requesting to refrain from such speculation.

On Tuesday, Odisha received 8,200 new EVMs from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) in Hyderabad in the first phase. Representatives of different political parties were present when the EVMs arrived at the Puri district warehouse. And this triggered speculation about early assembly polls in Odisha.

It was reported that Odisha, which is scheduled to conduct simultaneous elections in 2024, needed 95,000 EVMs for around 37,100 polling booths in 147 assembly and 21 Lok Sabha constituencies. This is double the quantity of EVMs required for a single election and will be met by direct procurement from the manufacturer and other states, as per the mandate of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The report further said that Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Balangir, Sonepur, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar will soon receive new EVMs.

Notably, nearly Rs 1,900 crore has been allocated in the Budget to purchase new EVMs for different states ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

It is pertinent to mention here that Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was the first to have hinted at the possibility of an early assembly election (before 2024) in the state, in December last year.