Patna (Bihar) [India], October 14 : The Election Commission of India (ECI) has completed Phase 2 randomisation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls.
The District Election Officers (DEOs) have completed all 20 districts of Bihar going to the polls in Phase II. They have completed the first randomisation of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)-Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), which had passed the First Level Checking (FLC) on October 13, the Election Commission of India (ECI) informed on Tuesday.
After the first randomisation, a total of 53,806 Ballot Units (BUs), 53,806 Control Units (CUs) and 57,746 VVPATs were randomly allotted to the 122 Assembly Constituencies having 45,388 Polling Stations.
The first randomisation was conducted through the EVM Management System (EMS) by the DEOs in the presence of representatives from national and State-Recognised political parties, the poll body stated in an official announcement.
Constituency-wise lists of randomly selected EVMs and VVPATs were shared with representatives of all national and state-recognised political parties at their respective district headquarters. These EVMs and VVPATs will be stored in the respective Assembly Strong Room in the presence of the representatives of National and State Recognised Political Parties, the ECI said.
The randomisation process is a key transparency measure, ensuring that no machine is pre-assigned to any specific constituency or polling station, thereby minimising the scope for tampering or bias.
Earlier on Monday, the first randomisation of all EVM-VVPAT in phase 1 of the Bihar polls was completed.
According to the ECI, a total of 1,08,117 Ballot Units (BUs), 1,08,117 Control Units (CUs), and 1,15,869 VVPATs have been randomly allotted across a total of 243 assembly constituencies, which comprise 90,724 polling stations, spread across 38 districts in the state.
The 243 Assembly seats will go to the polls in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with counting of votes to be held on November 14.
This upcoming electoral contest will be between the NDA, led by the BJP, and Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)), and the INDIA bloc, led by Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party and Tej Pratap Yadav's Janshakti Janta Dal (JJD) are also going to debut in the upcoming polls.
While the INDIA bloc has not announced its seat-sharing arrangement yet, the NDA announced its earlier, following thorough discussions between its allies. Under the arrangement, the BJP and JD(U) will contest 101 seats each, while the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will contest 29 seats. The Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) will contest six seats each.