WATCH: EVM’s being shifted from Strong Room campus in Amethi

Congress workers keeping a vigil outside the two strong rooms in Gauriganj (Amethi) on Wednesday noticed machines (Control Units and VVPAT units) being carried out from the Manishi Mahila Mahavidyalaya and loaded on to a waiting truck.

When the Kanungo and the Lekhpal sitting inside the campus failed to explain why the machines were being shifted out of the campus of the Manishi Mahila Strong Room, calls were made to senior officials.

SDM Vandita Shrivastava arrived at the Mahila Vidyalaya and claimed that a requisition had been received to send the machines to constituencies where polling is scheduled on May 12 in the sixth phase and where there is a shortage of machines.

This failed to satisfy the District Congress Committee President Yogendra Mishra and Advocate Surya Tripathi. Both of them wondered why spare or unused machines were stored in the same campus in the first place and not at a safe distance, where there would be no chance of the machines getting mixed up, and as prescribed by the EC.

The allegedly unused units were taken to the Collectorate at Gauriganj, where officials claimed that the machines would be tested and calibrated before being shipped out to other constituencies.

Speaking from Amethi over the phone, Surya Tripathi told National Herald that the movement of the machines was both sudden and suspicious because contrary to normal practice, no representative of political parties were either informed or consulted and no consent was obtained from them as required.

Rules framed by the Election Commission, he said, laid down that spare or unused machines are not kept in the same strong rooms along with the polled and defective polled machines.

The Election Commission classifies machines into four categories. Categories A and B are of machines polled and of machines polled but defective. Categories C and D are machines which are ‘defective unpolled’ and ‘unused reserve’ respectively.

Rules prescribe that category C machines are to be kept in ‘Repair Rooms’ separately. Category D machines are strictly prohibited to be kept in the vicinity of Strong Rooms.

Both the rules seem to have been violated in Amethi on Wednesday.

Amethi Lok Sabha constituency had 1963 polling booths this time and each booth had four machines. They included two Ballot Units, one Control Unit and a VVPAT unit in each of them. All the 7852 machines were meant to be taken to the two strong rooms, one located at the Indira Gandhi Post Graduate College and the other in the Manishi Mahila Mahavidyalaya and kept there sealed till the day of counting on May 23..

There were, pointed out local sources, 367 spare units.

A complaint was lodged with the Election Commission late on Wednesday evening, sources confirmed.