Special violet marker pens to be used for presidential voting

NEW DELHI: In a first, the Election Commission (EC) has decided to use a special marker pen for voting in the Presidential election to be held on July 17.

Till now, MPs and MLAs were allowed to carry their own pens (provided the ink was violet in colour) to number candidates in their order of preference on the ballot paper.

This time, however, they will have to surrender their pens before entering the enclosure to cast their votes and use only the violet-inked pen provided by the returning officers. Their personal pens will be returned to them once they have cast their vote and submitted the ballot paper.


The special marker pen has been centrally procured by the commission from Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd (MPVL), a government of Karnataka undertaking and the sole supplier of indelible ink for elections.

The pen has been introduced after the row sparked in the Haryana Assembly during the Rajya Sabha polls held last year that saw BJP-backed Subhash Chandra defeating Congress-backed RK Anand when the votes of 12 MLAs of Congress and its allies were declared invalid for marking their preferences with different coloured pens.