EC to use 1.6 lakh EVMs for simultaneous LS, Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena on Sunday said 1.6 lakh new Electronic Voting Machines will be used in 46,389 polling stations for the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the state on May 13. Besides these, another 20 per cent more EVMs have been kept ready, he said. In a release, Meena said, "Initially, it was estimated that 1.45 lakh EVMs would be sufficient for 46,165 polling stations.

However, the addition of 224 auxiliary polling stations necessitated the procurement of another 15,000 EVMs." He also noted that the Election Commission is striving to increase the polling percentage in the southern state to 83 per cent, compared to the 79.83 percentage registered during the 2019 polls. Further, he requested the voters of Andhra Pradesh to come forward and exercise their franchise, a right enshrined in the Constitution.

The total number of voters in Andhra Pradesh is 4.14 crore, which include 2.02 crore male voters, 2.1 crore female voters, 3,421 third gender voters and 68,185 service electors. Andhra Pradesh has 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175 Assembly constituencies.