Coronavirus: Bengal SEC says capable of holding civic polls in

The State Election Commission on Saturday said it has the "requisite infrastructure" to use ballot papers in the upcoming polls to 111 civic bodies, if stakeholders demand so instead of EVMs in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

"The Constitution has provisions and we are also capable of conducting the upcoming civic polls through ballot papers. We also have the required infrastructure for doing so," a senior state EC official told PTI.

People touch a single device while voting through EVMs, which is not the case with ballot papers.

"If there is a demand for ballot papers (because of coronavirus outbreak), we are ready," the official said.

Currently, EVMs are used in all elections in the country, though there had a been a demand from certain political parties to return to ballot papers claiming that the machines could be programmed.

The state Election Commission has convened a pre-poll all-party meeting on Monday, where it will take opinions of the parties regarding fixing of poll dates.

The coronavirus outbreak will be taken into account before the dates of the elections are finalised, the official said.