Why the Nizamabad polls will make it to the Guinness Book of World Records

Hyderabad, Apr 13: The polling in Nizamabad made for some interesting reading, with several records being created. The battle at Nizamabad was contested by Kavita, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao.

She was up against 184 candidates of which 178 were farmers. To facilitate the elections here, the Election Commission (EC) had to set up a mammoth number of EVMs. In fact, 12 EVMs were used in each booth.

The EC now wants the election held in Nizamabad to be registered in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Election officials have approached the Guinness Book of World Records to recognise the usage of large number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in a constituency.

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said they used nearly 27,000 Ballot Units for Nizamabad where the large number of farmers jumped into the fray to highlight their demand for remunerative price for turmeric and red sorghum and setting up of a Turmeric Board there.

We have approached to the consultant (of Guinness Book) who is based out of Hyderabad. They have given us a questionnaire and the answers to some of the questions I have approved and submitted to them.

The process is in motion, Rajat Kumar told PTI. Earlier in the day, he said: "This is the first time in the world where elections are conducted with such a large number of candidates using (such a large number of) EVMs."

Nizamabad has become a cynosure of all eyes with large number of candidates in the fray necessitating deployment of as many as 12 EVMs in each booth. Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha is seeking re-election from the constituency.

She, blaming the BJP, had said it was the Centre which should take initiative for setting up the Turmeric Board. TRS Rajya Sabha member D Srinivass son D Arvind is BJP nominee while AICC Secretary Madhu Yashki Goud is in fray from Congress in Nizamabad.

In view of the large number of contestants, 12 ballot Units were coupled in series and attached to a Control Unit in inverted L shape. The EC used M3 type EVMs which can support up to 24 BUs. Each BU will have 24 names.

In a normal situation, the EC drafts 15 to 16 engineers in a constituency, for troubleshooting, whereas for Nizamabad it kept on standby as many as 600 engineers.

Besides, large number of BUs, the EC used 2,200 Control Units and about 2,600 VVPATs for Nizamabad Constituency.