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EC is ready to hold elections in Telangana this year, says poll panel official

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Official says panel will be ready with the 33,000 VVPAT machines Telangana requires, team to visit state soon.

New Delhi: The Election Commission is prepared to hold elections in Telangana later this year, along with four other states, a senior official of the poll panel said Friday, ahead of the commission’s bi-weekly meeting in which the issue is expected to be discussed.

The official said that elections in Telangana will require 33,000 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines and the commission will be ready with this figure along with a 10 per cent reserve.

“There is no issue logistically or legally to hold elections in the state… We are prepared,” the official said, a day after the Telangana cabinet passed a resolution to dissolve the state assembly, eight months before its term was to end.


Also read: TDP, Congress say they are ready for early elections in Telangana


He also said that since the VVPAT machines are manufactured by the Electronics Corporation of India, which is based out of Hyderabad, the Telangana capital, delivery will not be a problem.

“Whatever other issues are there will be discussed in the meeting today… We will not do anything unconstitutional, but I think we are legally and logistically prepared.”

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who dissolved the state Assembly Thursday, is seeking a fresh mandate while looking to avoid a possible clubbing of polls in the state with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Poll panel team to visit the state

A team from the Election Commission is expected to be sent to the state soon to get a sense of the ground situation. The commission has already received a report from the chief electoral officer of Telangana on the poll preparedness in the state.

“There is no issue that has been flagged as such… Just the routine issues of budget allocation for the polls, among others, have been mentioned,” the official said.

As per Article 174 of the Constitution, the gap between two sessions of a state assembly cannot be more than six months — a provision which will be breached if there were to be no election in the state until February 2019.


Also read: Why the Modi factor could push KCR to rush through elections in Telangana


 

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