EVM Shortage May Force Maharashtra Local Body Polls Into 3 Phases

Mumbai: The elections to the state local bodies may have three phases, thanks to the limited number of Electronic Voting Machines available with the State Election Commission (SEC). It will be held in the first half of October.

The SEC has swung into action after the Supreme Court ruled on May 13 that the election should be held in the next four months. It has asked the Urban Development Department (UDD) to complete the process of forming the electoral wards in the next two months, which will be followed by the lottery system for the reservation. However, the SEC appears to be worried about the availability of the required number of EVMs needed for the polling.

Currently, the SEC has 65,000 EVM machines. But it will require 1.5 lakh machines to conduct the elections on a single day. Therefore, the SEC is mulling over a proposal to spread out the election program in phases. The State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare told Dainik Navshakti on Friday that a plan was under discussion to hold these elections like Municipal Council, Municipal Corporation, and Metropolitan Corporation in three phases.

As of today, 29 Municipal Corporations in the state have been under administrative rule for more than three years, along with the 248 Municipal Councils. After the SC directives, the SEC has approached the Election Commission for EVMs. However, if the machines are not available, Waghmare said there are plans to hold local body elections in three phases. The process of ward delimitation will be based on the 2011 census. There will be some changes if the voters have migrated to other places.