Newsroom24x8 Staff

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has responded to media reports and demand raised by a Congress party delegation on Saturday in connection with bye-election from Ater and Bandhavgarh (ST) Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh and in order to ensure the correct functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPATs) being deployed in the two Assembly constituencies, the Commission has decided to depute two teams of officers of the Commission along with technical experts.

The Congress delegation that met the Commission demanded the Commission to ensure free and fair election and absolute neutrality of officers.

The Election Commission, in a statement has said that the integrity of the EVMs and the VVPATs to be used in the polls will be
demonstrated to the complete satisfaction of all stakeholders by the team. These teams will remain in the Assembly Constituency till the counting is over.

It has been decided to depute a team of high revel officers led by Bhanwar Lal, CEO Andhra pradesh (chief secretary level officer) to supervise the bye-elections in MP. The team will also include R. K. Srivastava, Senior Principal Secretary and Varinder Kumar, Principal Secretary. These teams of senior officers will supervise the implementation of all administrative and security instructions of the ECI for the conduct of elections.

The Commission has said that it is committed to conduct entire erectoral process transparently, fairly and to the complete satisfaction of stakeholders including the esteemed voters. ECI will always hear and redress genuine and credible suggestions from stakeholders to further strengthen the electoral system.

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