Counting of VVPAT slips will delay results: Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer

Bengaluru: The Supreme Court ruling, making it mandatory to count VVPAT slips in at least five booths per Assembly segment is likely to delay the Lok Sabha election results by three hours.

Revealing this to mediapersons here during a Meet the Press programme organised by Press Club of Bangalore and Bangalore Reporters' Guild on Tuesday, State Chief Electoral Officer Mr Sanjiv Kumar said that it would require an additional 5,000 staff too. All put together, there would be around 3 lakh personnel on election duty.

When asked about Congress Campaign Committee chairman Mr H.K. Patil's statement that the Union government was misusing all constitutional bodies and the Election Commission was going soft on them, Mr Sanjiv Kumar said that as a constitutional body, they could not comment on the issue.

However, neither the Congress, nor anyone else had given any such complaint to the Election Commission in the state. The Commission had taken note of the allegations and had sent a report to the Chief Election Commissioner, he said.

Answering a question on the IT raids during election, Mr Sanjiv Kumar said the IT wing was an independent body which could function freely. The IT Commissioner has given specific information on violation of the Election Code of Conduct and the Commission has filed a police complaint in this regard, he added.

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