Solapur voters wait in line as 104 EVMs malfunction

SOLAPUR/AURANGABAD: In the Solapur Lok Sabha constituency, 104 electronic voting machines (EVMs) and 184 voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) units reported glitches during the polling process on Thursday.
At the Nehrunagar booth, Motilal Pardeshi, 81, had to wait in the queue for 45 minutes. “I am happy I could vote. But officials should have replaced the machine quickly,” he said.
Prapti Nashi, an IT professional who travelled overnight to Solapur from Pune, said, “I came here straight from the station.But I had to wait in the line for an hour.”
Solapur collector Rajendra Bhosale, however, said “Our officials replaced the machines within 15 minutes. The voting was conducted smoothly in the district.”
Meanwhile, Prakash Ambedkar, who contested from Solapur, alleged that EVMs at certain places were dysfunctional. He said when voters pressed on the button assigned to his symbol, the votes went to the BJP. “We have evidence to prove that our votes went to the BJP at some places. We will submit an official complaint,” Sujat Ambedkar, Prakash’s son and the main campaigner, told TOI. Bhosale said the allegation was baseless. “Our teams went to the booths and checked the EVMs. We did not find a problem,” he said.
Polling in Marathwada
Though some polling machines developing technical glitches, coupled with residents of several villages boycotting the polls, marred the elections in the six constituencies of the drought-hit Marathwada region on Thursday, the process remained largely peaceful barring a few minor incidents. Six constituencies went to the polls on Thursday — Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Latur.
Boycotts
In Osmanabad, residents of Wanvadi, Dhanegaon and Jejala villages and Somdana Wakadi boycotted the elections. In Nanded, villagers from Hasnal and Punjrwadi boycotted the polls. Karwadi village, on outskirts of Hingoli town, also refused to vote.
The Sunegaon village of Ahmedpur in Latur also stayed away from the election process, while villagers from Talegaon, cast only five votes. Meanwhile, in Beed, Shirur Bungalwadi gram panchayat and a village in Neknoor tehsil had first called a boycott. The administration, however, convinced the villagers to call off their boycott.
Machine snags
In Osmanabad, an EVM developed a snag in the Gunjwati village. In Hingoli, officials had to replace the VVPATs at 14 places, while the central processing units had to be replaced at 20 locations. The EVMs developed snags at five places — in Parli, Majalgaon, Ashti, Georai and Kej — in Beed. In Latur, two EVMs in one polling centre developed snags. In Parbhani, there were at least half-a-dozen EVM glitches.
Some violence
In Parbhani’s Shewadi, the police had to lathicharge the locals after an altercation between a policeman and a resident led to stone pelting. A case was registered.
An offence was also registered in Beed’s Neknoor after an argument between a polling official and a voter.