BHOPAL: The Assembly bypoll-bound Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh got a new collector and superintendent of police on Sunday after the district hogged headlines following a controversy over an EVM-VVPAT machine that reportedly dispensed only ruling BJP slips in a mock-test.
While V Kiran Gopal replaced T Ilaiya Raja as Bhind district collector, Shadol SP Sushant Saxena took over from Anil Singh Kushwah as district police chief.
Earlier on Saturday evening, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had sought from the MP government a panel of three officials each from which the replacements for the present collector and SP of Bhind could be made, official sources told New Indian Express on Sunday.
However, angered over the removal T Illaiya Raja (who has been popular in Bhind for development works), the local residents staged protests across Bhind town, before the police took control and dispersed the protestors.
A few other officials too were shifted, including three police sub-inspectors and a deputy SP, who the opposition Congress had alleged was close to the ruling BJP candidate Arvind Singh Bhadoria in view of Ater Assembly bypolls scheduled to be held on April 9.
Meanwhile, a five-member team of the ECI arrived in Bhind for overseeing the Ater Assembly bypoll.
The ECI team visited the MJS College and randomly tested the EVM and VVPAT machines, including the machines that reportedly dispensed only BJP slips in Friday’s mock-test.
The entire exercise was conducted by the ECI officials in the presence of local journalists and representatives of different political parties.
According to official sources, the ECI officials were of the view that no tampering was possible in any of the machines. However, some of VVPAT machines that were used in the recently held UP Assembly polls, were yet to be configured for the Ater bypolls.
On Saturday, Express had reported that the VVPAT machine which was mock tested on Friday by MP chief election officer Saleena Singh was the one which could have been used in recently concluded Assembly bypoll in Govindnagar constituency of UP's Kanpur district. The VVPAT machine's memory could not have been updated owing to which it dispensed slips bearing names of Govindnagar candidates along with their party symbols.
On Saturday evening, two delegations--one of senior Congress leaders and another led by AAP leader and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal--had met ECI top brass in Delhi and alleged tampering in EVMs exposed by the Friday's mock test of VVPAT machine.
The Congress delegation had also alleged that 19 officials hailing from a particular caste had been posted in Bhind by the ruling BJP to manipulate the April 9 bypoll.
The ECI had subsequently sought a detailed report from MP government about the concerned officials. The Commission had also decided to depute a team of high-level officers led by Andhra Pradesh chief election officer Bhanwar Lal to supervise the bye-elections in MP. The team will also include senior principal secretary RK Srivastava and principal secretary Varinder Kumar.
These teams of senior officers will supervise the implementation of all administrative and security instructions of the ECI for the conduct of elections.
To ensure the correct functioning of EVMs and VVPATs being deployed in the two constituencies, the Commission had also decided to depute two teams of officers of the Commission along with technical experts.