HYDERABAD: Amidst growing speculation over early elections to the state Assembly, chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar has made it clear that there has been no communication from the government over early elections. However, he has admitted that the state election body will be ready with the required equipment by November to conduct elections.
At an all-party meeting held at the Secretariat here on Wednesday, Rajat Kumar admitted that summary revision of draft electoral rolls was going on for the general election as per schedule, which is common. “If the government wants to advance elections, it can happen only after dissolution of the Assembly.
Only after that will the Election Commission of India decide when elections are to be conducted,” the CEO said, adding that the election machinery was ready to conduct elections in case the government wanted it as ballot machines and voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) would be ready by November.
Currently, the draft rolls contain a total number of 2.61 crore voters. In 2014 the number was 2.81 lakh and it is observed that the reduction in number is due to the shifting of some persons to Andhra Pradesh. The failure of Aadhaar details matching with the rolls is another factor for the removal of about 20 lakh voters, it is learnt. The state election commission needs 84,000 VVPAT control units and 1.23 lakh ballot units.