ECI gets EVM verification requests for eight Lok Sabha seats

Eight applications have been received from aggrieved Lok Sabha 2024 candidates seeking EVM/VVPAT memory verification from their constituencies, the Election Commission announced on Thursday. In all, the applications for EVM/VVPAT have been moved in eight of the 543 parliamentary constituencies across six states, which involve 92 polling stations.

In assembly polls, three applications have been moved in two states, across 26 polling stations.

ET was the first to report on June 18 that less than a dozen EVM/VVPAT memory verification applications had been filed with the poll panel. The applicants are from across the parties and only from six states in case of Lok Sabha 2024 polls, with three moved by the BJP.


PARTY WISE
BJP's Sujay Vikhe-Patil, who lost to Nilesh Lanke of NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction by over 28,000 votes, has applied for verification across 40 polling stations in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. This is likely the maximum for any candidate.AC Shanmugam in Vellore, Tamil Nadu and BB Patil who lost to Congress in Zahirabad in Telangana who have also moved the ECI.

Two Congress candidates have moved an application - in Kanker in Chhattisgarh and it is said to be Biresh Thakur who lost by 1,884 to the BJP candidate; in Karnal it is Divyanshi Budhiraja of Congress who lost to former CM and current Union agriculture minister Manohar Lal Khattar by 2.3 lakh votes and Mahender Pratap Singh who lost by 1.3 lakh votes in Faridabad in Haryana.

In Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar, the DMDK candidate Vijayprabhakaran V who lost by 4,379 votes to Congress' Manickam Tagore B has filed an application for verification in 14 polling stations while in Vizianagram in Andhra Pradesh it is YSR Congress' Bellana Chandrasekhar who lost by 2.4 lakh votes and has moved the ECI.

For assembly polls, while BJD candidate Dipali Das has sought verification in 13 polling stations in Odisha's Jharsuguda after a narrow loss to BJP, the YSR Congress candidates in assembly constituencies of Gajapathinagaram and Ongole in Andhra Pradesh have also sought so in 1 and 12 polling stations, respectively.

The Lok Sabha elections this year for the first time provided two runners-up candidates in a constituency to seek verification of the EVM/VVPAT microcontroller for alleged "tampering or modification" within seven days of the June 4 result declaration day.

There is, however, a cost to it.

For the 2024-25 election cycle, it will cost ₹40,000 plus 18% GST to seek checking and verification of each EVM unit (comprising control unit, ballot unit and the VVPAT), the ECI has decided.

This cost, however, will be refunded in case the EVM unit is proven tampered during the verification process, the court has ruled.