TRS to field dummies to defeat EVMs

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has come up with a Gandhigiri tactic to defeat the resolve of the Election Commission to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the July 27 byelections in Telangana. It will field at least 70 dummy candidates as Independents, far too many for a single EVM control unit to hold. Each EVM control unit can accommodate a maximum of 64 candidates.

This is the TRS’ ploy to force the Election Commission (EC) to make a difficult choice whether to go in for a second EVM control unit at each polling station or go back to the good old ballot paper.

The separatist party says EVMs are not tamper-proof and insists that this crucial vote be held on ballot paper.

TRS cadres believe the party lost many seats in the general election of 2009 due to tampering of EVMs by rival parties.

However, the EC is strongly opposed to the idea and is pressing ahead with the EVMs for the July 27 polls.

The TRS politburo has already decided to go to court to have its way. If that does not work, the party will fall back on Gandhigiri.

“Putting up a second EVM control unit in each polling station will violate the rule of secrecy,’’ TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao told Express.

“Agents will be able to tell which parties a voter did not vote for.’’ He complained that the commission has not been receptive to his submission that EVMs are not always reliable.

To carry out this ploy, the TRS will import dummy candidates from those Telangana districts where there are no bypolls. Most of these dummies will be from SC and ST communities as the mandated security deposit for them would be smaller.

Coming to know of the TRS’ strategy, the EC is working to sort out any glitches there might be in the EVMs.