Brinda Karat slams EC after battery issue briefly halts voting at her polling booth

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat encountered a voting delay on Saturday morning due to a technical issue with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at her designated polling booth in the New Delhi constituency. Karat alleged that she was forced to wait for nearly an hour for the problem to be resolved, raising concerns about the Election Commission's preparedness for the Lok Sabha elections.

The incident occurred at St. Columba's School, one of the polling stations in the New Delhi constituency. Karat arrived to cast her vote but was informed that the battery of the EVM control unit had drained out, halting the voting process.

Expressing her dissatisfaction with the situation, Karat stated, "We came to vote, they are saying that the machine's battery is down. If the machine's battery is down early in the morning, imagine what is the condition of the Election Commission."

She further added, "I have written a complaint here, how is it that in the morning at 9 am the battery of the machine is down? What are the arrangements that they have made? People are waiting here in the heat for so long."

The Election Commission, however, contested Karat's claims regarding the duration of the delay. In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), the District Election Officer of New Delhi clarified that the battery issue affected voting for approximately 15 minutes and was promptly addressed.

"The battery of the control unit...drained at around 10:00 am. At that time, approximately 10 voters were in queue. The battery was replaced in 15 minutes and voting resumed," the statement read, assuring voters that "Presently, voting is going smoothly."

As of 11 am, Delhi recorded a voter turnout of 21.69% across its seven Lok Sabha constituencies.