A bus carrying polling officials and electronic voting machines (EVMs) caught fire in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh, damaging a few EVMs. However, Betul Collector Narendra Suryavanshi told the news agency PTI over the phone that no polling staff or the bus driver suffered any injury in the incident.
The incident took place near Gola village around 11 pm in the district on Tuesday. The collector said the fire occurred because of a spark in the bus, but no one suffered any injuries in the incident.
Madhya Pradesh Bus Fire
The fire damaged EVMs of four polling stations, including booth numbers 275, 276, 277, 278, 279 and 280, he said. The fire tender doused the flames, which had totally gutted the bus, he added.
Six polling parties and as many EVMs were in the bus at the time of the incident, Suryavanshi said. Four EVMs were damaged, while two others are safe. In the four affected EVMs, either a control unit or a ballot unit suffered damage in the fire, he said.
Asked whether the incident would affect the vote count recorded in the EVMs, the collector said that he will send his report to the Election Commission on the issue and the poll body will take a decision regarding re-polling on the affected booths.
A total of 72.65 per cent polling was recorded in the Betul Lok Sabha seat, a poll official told to PTI.