EC replaced 1,202 faulty VVPATs during bypoll

The Election Commission on Monday said that 1,202 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices malfunctioned across the country during the bypolls in 10 states for the Lok Sabha and state assembly constituencies.

The commission had deployed 10,365 devices for the by-elections.

The EC replaced all the malfunctioning VVPAT devices with the fully functional ones from its reserve stocks kept with the sector officers across the constituencies that went to polls for the by-elections.

Ninety-six of the total 12,695 ballot units and 84 of the 10,365 of the EVMs were also replaced as they malfunctioned during the polling, the EC stated.

The maximum number of VVPATs malfunctioned in Bhandara-Gondiya parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra. Altogether 413 VVPATs out of 2,149 deployed in as many polling stations in the constituency malfunctioned and had to be replaced. Forty-three malfunctioning control units and 32 ballot units of the EVMs were also replaced with functional ones kept in reserve in the constituency, the EC stated.

In Kairana parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, 355 malfunctioning VVPATs were replaced out of 1,705 deployed in as many polling stations. Only three ballot units and an equal number of control units of the EVMs malfunctioned and had to be replaced with functional ones during the polling in the constituency.

In Palghar constituency in Maharashtra, 276 malfunctioning VVPATs were replaced out of 2,097 deployed in as many polling stations. Only 12 ballot units and 14 control units of the EVMs malfunctioned and had to be replaced with functional ones during the polling in the constituency.