For the upcoming three-tier panchayat elections, the State Election Commission has printed more than two crore ballot papers. The commission says that ballot papers are printed on the basis of election symbol rather than the name of the party or candidate.
The commission had started preparing for the panchayat elections several months before. Ballot boxes were ordered from the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh. More than two crore ballot papers are required for about 50 lakh voters. Therefore, the commission has printed about two and a half crore ballot papers. For the first time, the commission has also printed about two lakh ballot papers from the government’s government printing press in Hyderabad. At the same time, ballot papers have been printed from two government presses of UP, Ramnagar and Lucknow, as well as from RBI authorized private press.
Commission Secretary Rahul Kumar Goyal says that elections are based on election symbol rather than any party or candidate. Therefore, ballot papers are printed in advance. These are printed in different groups. For example, ballot of six election symbols, ballot of nine, ballot of 12. After this, the ballot is modified according to the number of candidates and made available for the election. If there are five candidates, then one election symbol will be torn and separated from the ballot of six.
