HYDERABAD: The commencement of first-level checking of EVMs and VVPATs at the Nalgonda headquarters, on the instructions of the Election Commission of India, has fuelled speculation that a notification for the Munugode bypoll may be issued by the month-end and subsequently, polling will be held in October-end or early November.
The checks started on Wednesday and are expected to last a week, following which Nalgonda district collector T. Vinay Krishna Reddy, also the district election officer, will submit a report to the ECI on the readiness of the district administration for the bypoll.
Besides the initiation of checks, additional EVMs and VVPATs were also transferred from Bhongir district to Nalgonda, after officials estimated that the machinery would be insufficient for the poll.
As many as 1,192 ballot units, 596 control units and 596 VVPATs are currently at the disposal of the Nalgonda district administration.
Further, official sources indicated that EVMs and VVPATs would be kept at 200 per cent of the estimated requirement, as a precautionary measure.
Munugode Assembly constituency has seven mandals, two municipalities and 176 gram panchayats, with 288 polling stations in all.
As the constituency has been witnessing an increase in polling since 2014 — when it recorded 85 per cent voter turnout, followed by 91 per cent voter turnout in 2018 — there is an expectation that the turnout may cross the 95 per cent mark this time around.
Sources said that the randomisation of EVMs and VVPATs will be done, in the presence of officials and political representatives, once the notification is issued. A second round of randomisation will also be done before shifting them to polling stations.
With the TRS, BJP and Congress in a three-way battle for the seat, many Munugode natives who have settled in other districts and states have also enrolled as voters, with around 15,000 applications filed over the past month.
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