Bihar 2025 polls: Election commission begins random distribution of EVMs in presence of party representatives

In a bid to boost candidates’ confidence in the effectiveness of electronic voting machines, the Election Commission has started random distribution of EVMs and paper trail units ahead of the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections on November 6.

An EC statement said on Monday (October 13) that the first randomization was carried out through the EVM Management System (EMS) by the district election officers in the presence of representatives of national and state recognized political parties.

Officials said the second randomization will take place by Tuesday, October 14.

The electoral authority reported, after the first randomization, a total of 54,311 voting units (BU), 54,311 control units (CU) and 58,123 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) units. were randomly allocated to the 121 Assembly constituencies comprising 45,336 polling stations.

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Constituency-wise lists of randomized EVMs and VVPATs were shared with representatives of all nationally and state-recognized political parties at their respective district headquarters.

These EVMs and VVPATs will be kept in the strong room of the respective assembly in the presence of representatives of recognized political parties.

After finalizing the list of candidates in the running, the list of the first randomized machines will be shared with the parties.

While the second phase of elections will take place on November 11, the counting will take place on November 14.