Jamshedpur: Political parties instructed on election code and EVM handling

Jamshedpur: In preparation for the upcoming assembly elections, the district administration has initiated all necessary measures to ensure a free, fair, and transparent electoral process. A key meeting was held at the Collectorate Auditorium, chaired by District Election Officer  Ananya Mittal, with representatives from various political parties in attendance. The meeting focused on ensuring strict adherence to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and other election-related guidelines.

During the meeting, important instructions were provided regarding the compliance of the MCC, pre-certification of campaign materials, maintaining election expenditure records, and reporting to the designated cell. The District Election Officer emphasized the randomization process for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), which will occur in two phases. The first phase will involve identifying EVM sets for each assembly constituency, while in the second phase, these sets will be allocated to specific booths.

Further,  Mittal detailed the logistics for the election. The EVMs will be dispatched to designated centers — LBSM College will serve as the dispatch center for the Baharagora, Ghatshila, and Potka constituencies, and Co-operative College will serve as the dispatch center for Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West, and Jugsalai constituencies. The EVMs will be moved from these dispatch centers to their respective constituency clusters on November 12 and kept in secure intermediate strong rooms under strict surveillance.

On the polling day, November 13, polling teams will transport EVMs on foot from the cluster locations to their assigned booths. Political party representatives were reminded to be present at key stages of the election process, including the strong room operations and the mock polling exercise.

Senior officials from the MCC and MCMC (Media Certification and Monitoring Committee) cells reiterated the importance of pre-certifying all promotional materials. They also briefed party representatives on maintaining accurate expenditure records. Specific attention was drawn to the rules and protocols that must be followed during the nomination process to ensure adherence to the Election Commission’s guidelines.

In addition to representatives from political parties, senior district officials, including ADM Law and Order  Aniket Sachan, SDM Dhalbhum  Shatabdi Majumdar, Deputy Election Officer  Priyanka Singh, and District Public Relations Officer  Panchanan Oraon, were present at the meeting. The district administration urged all political parties to ensure strict compliance with the guidelines to facilitate a smooth and transparent election.