Delhi,April 16: Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for the General Election to Legislative Assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and bye-elections in 6 states on March 15,2026.
Commissioning of EVMs and VVPATs for constituencies going to polls on 23rd April commenced today i.e., 16th April (Thursday) onwards at different constituencies, in the presence of the candidates or their authorised representatives as well as General Observers.
Commissioning will be followed by a mock poll of 1000 votes in 5% of the EVMs randomly selected by the candidates/ their representatives. They will also be allowed to do the mock polls themselves.
Before commissioning, EVMs were allotted to their respective polling stations through a 2-stage randomisation process through EVM management System. In the first stage, EVMs were randomly allocated from District level warehouses to the Assembly Constituencies. In the second stage, EVMs were randomly allocated from the AC level to the polling station level. The total number of polling stations in Tamil Nadu is 75,064 and 44,378 in West Bengal (Phase-I) which are going to polls on 23rd April.
As per the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the First Randomization was done through EVM Management System (EMS) by the DEOs in the presence of the representatives of National and State Recognised Political Parties.
Second randomisation of EVMs was completed through EVM Management System (EMS) by the ROs in the presence of contesting candidates/their agents and General Observers for the General Election to Legislative Assemblies of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (Phase-I) and bye-elections in Gujarat and Maharashtra going to polls on April 23, 2026.
Constituency wise lists of first randomized EVMs and VVPATs were shared with the representatives of all National and State Recognised Political Parties at the respective district headquarters.
These EVMs and VVPATs were thereafter stored in respective Assembly Strong Rooms in the presence of the representatives of National and State Recognized Political Parties.
The list of first and second randomized EVMs and VVPATs has also been shared with all the contesting candidates.
