With 185 candidates in fray, Nizamabad to vote through ballot paper

With 185 candidates contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Nizamabad parliamentary constituency, the Election Commission has decided to hold elections through ballot paper.

The decision has been taken owing to the inability of present EVM models to be used for such a large number of candidates.

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said, "There are 185 contestants in the fray in Nizamabad so we will be conducting elections using ballot papers. Once Form 7A is received, printing of ballot paper will be taken up. "

"Ballot papers have been used in the state in 1996 and 2010 and also the in the recent Gram Panchayat elections held in January 2019. We are using M2Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) machines also. These can only take 63 in addition to NOTA," he added.

All 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana will go to polls in a single phase on April 11.