Raipur: Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Arun Sai who holds the portfolio of panchayat raj, on Saturday said that a move was underway to hold the civic body polls in the state with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Mr Sao who had declared last fortnight that the civic body polls would be held with ballot papers, made a U-turn on the issue saying that the state election commission (SEC) was exploring the possibility of conducting the polls with the EVMs.
The state government has written a letter to the SEC seeking the commission’s view on the suggestion by it to hold the civic body polls with EVMs.
The SEC is working in this direction, Mr Sao hinted.
Mr Sao said that the polls to the urban local bodies in the state were conducted with EVMs in 2014 when BJP was in the power in Chhattisgarh.
However, the previous Congress government in the state had held the polls with ballot papers in 2019.
Mr Sao said that the supreme court had on several occasions held that EVMs were safe despite the reservation on the EVMs by the Opposition.
Congress spokesman Sushil Anand Shukla attacked the BJP for trying to make a U-turn on the issue by initiating the move to conduct the civic body polls with EVMs, saying that it indicated that the ruling party was not confident enough to face the electorates in the elections.
Sources said that the polls to the urban and rural local bodies may be declared by the SEC any time after January 15.
Meanwhile, the state government on Saturday finalized the reservation of posts of 33 zilla panchayat chairpersons, paving the way for holding the polls to the three- tier panchayat raj system.
Of the 33 zilla panchayat chairperson posts, 16 are reserved for the scheduled tribe (ST), four for the scheduled caste (SC) and 13 are left for general category people.
Seventeen of the 33 zilla panchayat chairperson posts have been reserved for women.