New voting system of polling and service voters may affect results

Jaipur: The new arrangement made by the ECI for the polling staff and service personnel to cast their votes can have a big impact on the election results this time. The reason is that in last Raj Assembly polls i.e. 2018, 4, 68, 665 postal ballots were issued to employees engaged in voting and the service voters.

Out of these, 1, 52, 882 votes weren’t returned. In last polls, in close contest between Congress and BJP, there was a difference of only 1, 90,000 votes between the two. This time, ECI has made it mandatory for employees to cast their vote even before going for voting duty, due to which these votes will also play a role in poll result. This time, issues related to Central & State employees have become big issues.

In 2018 Assembly polls, Congress had won 100 seats and secured a total of 39.30% votes. BJP had won 73 seats and voting percentage was 38.77%. Despite only 0.53% less votes, the difference in seats was 27. In such a situation, non-return of postal ballot was considered to have a major impact. Keeping this in view, the ECI has ended the tradition of postal ballot in this election. At the same time, for service voting, proper arrangements are being made to send vote through the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) and get it returned.