As the ruling BJP joined Opposition parties in complaining against alleged malfunctioning of "hundreds" of EVMs and paper trail machines during bypolls in Uttar Pradesh today, the poll panel said less than one per cent voting machines, but over 11 per cent VVPATs were replaced, even as it sought to put the blame on "extreme heat" and mishandling by some polling staff.
Within hours of saying that that there was "no abnormality in EVMs at all", the Election Commission issued figures to indicate that 96 ballot units (the actual EVM), 84 control units (the command unit of the machine which is with the presiding officer) were replaced at four Lok Sabha and 9 assembly bypolls today across ten states.
It said 12695 ballot units and 10365 control units were used in the bypolls. It said percentage-wise, 0.76 per cent ballot units and 0.86 per cent control units were replaced.
"Malfunction was in VVPATs (voter verifiable paper audit trail machines). Factors responsible may include first time use by polling staff whereas they have developed expertise in managing EVMs, extreme heat, placement of VVPAT under direct light and mishandling during use. EC conducts root cause analysis in such cases to improve (functioning) in future," a spokesperson said.
The EC said out of 10365 VVPATs, 1202 were replaced. It comes to 11.60 per cent.
Concerns were raised by parties about the functioning of paper trail machines including for bypolls for Kairana Lok Sabha seat and Noorpur assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Sources in the EC noted that failure on part of the ground staff led to heating of the machines.
An official said those who skipped training programmes and "spent time on their phones during training sessions" placed the machines at places where 'heat sensitive' nature of the device created problems.
Earlier in the day, the Commission termed as "exaggerated projection of reality" reports of "large scale" failure of EVMs during Lok Sabha and assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and said adequate number of reserve machines were provided for any eventuality.
A delegation of the opposition party leaders -- SP leader Ramgopal Yadav, RLD chief Ajit Singh and Congress leader RPN Singh -- met top EC officials claiming that the faulty EVMs were not replaced in time.
The leaders demanded that repoll should be announced in polling stations where EVMs were not replaced for over one-and-a-half hours.
At polling stations where EVMs were replaced within one-and-a-half hours, additional time should be granted to voters to exercise their franchise, they told reporters after meeting the EC.
They alleged that poll officials "took their own time" in replacing EVMs in rural areas, the base of their voters. The EVMs were, however, replaced with alacrity in urban areas.
A BJP delegation, including general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Arun Singh besides its media head Anil Baluni, informed the EC that EVM machines were dysfunctional for a long period in 197 booths in Kairana and Noorpur.
Yadav told reporters that they urged the EC to hold re-polling in booths were election process was severely affected.
They asked the EC to send observers to identify such booths and also to find out reasons for EVM malfunction.
The spokesperson said a joint delegation of the RLD, SP and Congress and a separate delegation of BJP representatives met the EC and brought to its notice concerns about functioning of VVPAT machines in some of the polling booths in bypolls today.
"The Commission assured them that all necessary action will be taken on issues raised. They were also assured that the concerns related to VVPAT have been verified on ground and appropriate actions have been taken by the District Election teams. The Commission has also informed that on the basis of reports of RO, DEO and Observers, further action will be taken."
The EC said voters who have queued up outside polling stations will be allowed to cast votes despite end of polling hours.
But, in a statement, the poll panel denied that the failure of the voting machines was unusual.
"...the Commission allocates sufficient reserve of EVMs and VVPATs for every general and by election to the Lok Sabha or state assembly.
"It is pertinent to mention that during commissioning of EVMs and VVPATs, apart from EVMs and VVPATs required for deployment at every polling station, adequate number of reserve EVMs and VVPATs (around 20-25 per cent) are prepared to replace any defective machine on poll day at the polling station," it said.
It said the reserve EVMs/VVPATs are kept with sector officers, who replace the defective EVMs/VVPATs. Since each sector officer is entrusted with only 10-12 polling stations, the time taken to replace any EVM/VVPAT is normally less than 30 minutes.
"The replacement of defective EVMs/VVPATs during actual polls is a normal process and does not vitiate the integrity or credibility of the poll process in any way whatsoever," the statement read.
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