Prez polls: MPs, MLAs to have different coloured ballot papers

July 17, 2017 09:10

MPs and MLAs who vote to elect the next President on Monday have been barred from carrying their personal pens inside the voting chamber and will have to mark their ballot with a specially-designed marker, the Election Commission said.

Following the ink controversy in the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana last year, the Election Commission has decided to use special pens for the electors to mark their votes in the presidential and vice presidential polls.

Specially serial-numbered pens with violet ink have been supplied by the Election Commission to ensure that only the writing instrument issued by it is used by voters to mark their votes on Monday.

"Before entering the voting chamber, a polling staff will collect personal pens from the voters and hand over the special pen to mark their vote on the ballot paper.

"When the member comes out of the voting chamber, the special pen will be taken back and the polling staff will return the personal pen," a Commission spokesperson explained the new rule.

While announcing the schedule of the election, the poll panel had made it clear that use of any other pen could lead to invalidation of the vote at the time of counting under the Presidential and Vice Presidential Elections Rules, 1974.

These special pens have been procured from Mysore paints and varnish Ltd which supplies indelible ink to the EC.

Green-coloured ballot papers will be there for members of Parliament and pink for MLAs who vote in the election.

« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES

Not changing 2G judgment, non-auction allocation only for...: Sources

The government is not seeking to change the 2012 Supreme Court judgment that backed auction as the preferred mode of allocating telecom spectrum except for narrowly defined sectors such as satellite communication and defence where the...

It's Modi govt that wanted to bring inheritance tax: Cong

Amid the row over Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks, the party on Wednesday asserted that it has no plans whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax and cited former Union minister Jayant Sinha's remarks to allege that it is the Modi...

'Can't control polls': SC to EVM critics as it reserves order

The Supreme Court said on Wednesday it cannot 'control the elections' or issue directions simply because doubts have been raised about the efficacy of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), as it reserved its judgment on a clutch of petitions...

Modi's 'redistribution' charge against Cong gets Pitroda's booster

In his poll rallies, Modi framed Pitroda's comments in his wider onslaught against the Congress, asserting that they have exposed its hidden agenda and that the party has become so removed from the country's social and family values that...

IPL PIX: Pant shines as spirited Delhi Capitals edge Titans

Rishabh Pant's belligerent unbeaten half-century helped Delhi Capitals' to a narrow four-run win over Gujarat Titans.