Contest expands to 21 candidates .... HINT AT TWO EVMS IN ONE DARJEELING BOOTH

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 27 Mar 2019,Darjeeling: Twenty-one people have filed nominations to contest from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, which means two electronic voting machines will be needed at a single booth if they remain in fray.

Tuesday was the last day to file nominations and their scrutiny will take place on Wednesday.

If all the nominations are accepted and none of the 21 candidates withdraws from the contest by March 29, the Election Commission of India will have to erect two EVMs at every booth in the Darjeeling segment.

Each EVM has 16 slots, one of which is kept for NOTA. Six other candidates have to be slotted in another EVM.

Four EVMS can be connected together at a booth so that 63 candidates can be accommodated technically.

Sources said Darjeeling had never witnessed so many candidates filing nominations for the general election before.

The number of nominations in other constituencies in north Bengal which will go to polls in the first two phases will show a clearer picture of the Darjeeling contest. Alipurduar has seven contestants, while 11 nominations were filed in Cooch Behar. The Raiganj and Jalpaiguri seats have received 12 and 10 nominations, respectively.

Cooch Behar and Alipurduar will go to polls on April 11 whereas voting will be held in Darjeeling, Raiganj and Jalpaiguri on April 18.

Of 12 candidates who filed nominations in Darjeeling on Tuesday, Swaraj Thapa was the biggest surprise. He had quit the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's Bimal Gurung camp on Sunday in protest against the contest of an "outsider (Raju Bista)".

After filing the papers, Thapa said: "Looking at the list of candidates, I felt it was necessary to provide a strong alternative before the people. That is why I have filed my nominations. The biggest issue for Darjeeling is Gorkhaland. The Trinamul candidate cannot raise this issue in Parliament, while the BJP contestant has said he is not the right person to speak on the subject. It means there is no one to raise the Gorkhaland issue in Parliament," added Thapa.

Jana Andolan Party president Harka Bahadur Chhetri also filed papers on Tuesday. He, too, spoke of Gorkhaland and echoed Thapa..