Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and polling staff have reached the 261 polling stations in the purview of Tirupati Assembly constituency on Wednesday.

The presiding officers and sectoral officers gathered at Sri Venkateswara Arts College campus, the makeshift strongroom where the EVMs are housed, and got the machines distributed to the respective staff members under the guidance of the Returning Officer V. Vijay Rama Raju.

As the Election Commission has directed the presiding officials to conduct a mock poll 90 minutes ahead of the actual polling time, the officials are told to get ready for the task at 5.30 a.m. on Thursday.

Mr. Raju announced that the sectoral, presiding and assistant presiding officials had sufficiently checked the EVMs and as such are confident of their smooth functioning. Section 144 would be in vogue up to 100 metres from every polling station, where people carrying mobile phones would not be allowed. “Sectoral officials will be at a travelling distance of 10-20 minutes and they will rush to the spot in case of exigencies,” he assured.

Webcasting

Chandragiri Returning Officer R. Mahesh Kumar confirmed that the officials and EVMs had reached the 325 polling stations in the constituency on Wednesday. A mobile application on poll management has been downloaded on all election officials , which has been linked with a user ID and password.

The app will be used for real time interaction with the ECI on election-related issues. “IT relay webcasting will be available in all polling stations,” Dr. Mahesh Kumar announced. Chandragiri constituency general observer Devendra Kumar Singh, Chittoor parliament observer Vaibhav Garlia and police observer Rupen Singh monitored the shifting of EVMs to Chandragiri.