Congress complains to EC about faulty EVMs in Maharashtra

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The Congress on Thursday said it has submitted 33 complaints to the Election Commission about "glitches" in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) at some polling booths across Maharashtra's 10 Lok Sabha seats where voting was underway. The state Congress unit's legal cell submitted the complaints to the EC via e-mail, the party said in a statement.

It also flagged concerns about poor lighting arrangements at some polling centres, the statement said. "Solapur, Hingoli and Nanded constituencies have reported more EVM-related complaints," Vinay Pandey of the state Congress' legal cell said. Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur, Buldhana, Akola and Amravati are the other constituencies where polling was currently being held.

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Voting started on a peaceful note for 10 Lok Sabha seats spread in Maharashtra's Vidarbha and Marathwada regions in the second phase of elections on Thursday morning. The constituencies going to polling are -- Buldhana, Akola, Amravati (SC), Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur (SC) and Solapur (SC).

The main contests shall be between ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena and Opposition Congress-Nationalist Congress Party, besides the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), a Dalit-Muslim front. Among the early voters were former Union Home Minister and ex-Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, his wife Ujwala, their legislator daughter Praniti Shinde and other family members who arrived at a polling station to cast exercise their franchise.

Besides Maharashtra, polling is being held in 14 seats in Karnataka, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. An average 8.6 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 9 am in 10 constituencies of Maharashtra where polling was underway in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, an official said.

According to the state election office, Parbhani Lok Sabha seat recorded 9.3 per cent voting in the first two hours, while it was 8.88 per cent in Nanded.

Besides, Latur recorded 8.41 per cent, followed by Hingoli-7.94 per cent, Osmanabad-7.9 per cent, Buldhana-7.7
per cent, Akola-7.6 per cent per cent, Beed-7.55 per cent, Solapur-6.87 per cent and Amravati-6.4 per cent.
In Nanded, there were complaints of malfunctioning of 78 electronic voting machines (EVMs). A total of 179 candidates are in the fray in the 10 constituencies.

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Beed constituency has the maximum number of 36 contestants while 10 candidates are contesting from Latur. Prominent candidates in the fray are senior Congress leaders and former chief ministers Ashok Chavan and
Sushilkumar Shinde, who are contesting from Nanded and Solapur seats, respectively. In Beed, the home constituency of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, his daughter Pritam is seeking another term. She is facing Bajrang Sonawane of the NCP. In the 2014 elections, the NDA won 8 out of these 10 seats, whereas the Congress won two seats - Nanded and Hingoli. A total of 62,700 EVMs (37,850 ballot units and 24,850 control units) and around 27,000 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines are in place for the second phase.

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Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from Agencies