Lok Sabha polls: EVMs to carry candidate pics to avoid confusion over similar names
New Delhi: The Election Commission on Sunday said the EVMs and postal ballot papers would carry photograph of all candidates to help voters identify the political leaders in the fray.
Announcing the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, beginning April 11 and ending May 19, the Election Commission said the provision for printing the candidate photographs will help avoid any confusion which may arise when candidates with similar names contest from the same constituency.
The photograph will be printed on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) ballot units as well as on postal ballot papers, the EC said.
For this purpose, the candidates are required to submit to the returning officer, their recent stamp size photograph as per the specifications laid down by the Commission.
The EC also said India had gone to polls with photo electoral rolls for the first time in 2009. In that year, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Nagaland did not have photo electoral rolls, while elector photo identity cards were not distributed to electors in Assam and Nagaland.
Now, all states and union territories have photo electoral rolls and photographs of 99.72 per cent electors are already printed in the electoral rolls. Besides, 99.36 per cent electors have been given EPIC.
The percentage of electors with EPIC and photographs in electoral rolls is likely to increase further before the elections with several states and UTs having already reported 100 per cent coverage, the EC said.
The Commission also said that official voter slip bearing the photo of the elector (wherever present in the roll) will be distributed at least five days before the polling date.
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Rupali Chakankar resigns as NCP state women's wing chief
Mumbai (PTI): Under fire over her association with rape-accused 'godman' Ashok Kharat, NCP leader Rupali Chakankar on Friday resigned as the party's Maharashtra women's wing chief.
"Following a discussion over the phone with (NCP president and deputy Chief Minister) Sunetra Pawar this morning, I am tendering my resignation as state president of the Nationalist Congress Party's women's wing," she said in a post on X.
Earlier, Chakankar had stepped down as chairman of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women after her links with Kharat came to light.
In the letter shared on the social media platform, Chakankar said that she had clarified her stand on the Kharat case on the very first day, asserting that she had no direct or indirect connection with his financial dealings or alleged wrongdoings.
Her stand remains clear and firm, and the truth would emerge in the course of investigation, Chakankar added.
The allegations being levelled against her in the media without any evidence are "painful" but the truth would ultimately prevail, she said.
Kharat, who headed a temple trust at Mirgaon in Nashik district, was arrested on March 18 after a woman accused him of raping her repeatedly over three years. A total of eight FIRs have been registered against him since then.
Chakankar was a member of the temple trust.
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