EVMs with paper trail at two by-elections in Madhya Pradesh

Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) facility will be used in the Assembly by-elections at Ater in Bhind district and Bandhavgarh in Umaria district in Madhya Pradesh.

The two by-elections are scheduled for April 9.

A total of 830 EVMs with VVPAT facility would be used.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Saleena Singh said VVPAT was being used to ensure more transparency, and if the experiment succeeded, the facility will be used in the Assembly elections in the state next year too.

After pressing the button on EVM, a VVPAT slip will be generated and the voter will have seven seconds to check the voting information printed on it, Singh said. The slip would be preserved for record.

EVMs with VVPAT were used in several places in the recently-concluded elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, the CEO said.

Meanwhile, after scrutiny of nominations, 23 candidates are left in the fray in Ater constituency and ten in Bandhavgarh.

Two nominations each were rejected in both the places.

Counting of votes will take place on April 13.

The by-poll in Ater Assembly constituency is being held following the death of senior Congress leader Satyadev Katare.

The Bandhavgarh seat fell vacant after the incumbent MLA and state minister Gyan Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Shahdol seat in a by-poll in November last year.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)