Bihar appears to be heading towards a constitutional crisis as elections to the three-tier panchayati raj system are likely to miss the deadline for completion because the Election Commission and the state poll panel are at loggerheads over the use of electronic voting machines (EVM) in the polls.

When the state election commission approached Patna High Court on the issue, it had suggested the two constitutional bodies sort out the matter in a mutual manner instead of contesting each other in front of the judiciary.

However, with no resolution in sight and the EC not relenting on the issue, the matter has come to a head.

The high court has also been unable to take up the case for hearing despite it being listed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The poll process needs to be completed by June 15. The notification for the polls was supposed to be published in March, but is already delayed by a month. If the elections are not completed on time, the state government will have to make alternative arrangements.

“Though the case is in Patna High Court, if the polls are not completed on time, we will have to make alternative arrangements. We may appoint administrators to run the local self-government institutions. The panchayat sevak, block development officers, MLAs and others could be given the responsibility,” Bihar panchayati raj minister Samrat Choudhary told The Telegraph.

The rural local body polls involve 8,386 panchayats, block samitis and zilla parishad with elections held for around 2.59 lakh posts in six categories — mukhiya (panchayat headman), ward members, sarpanch (gram kutchery or village court head), panch (village court member) and others at the block and district levels.

According to SEC officials, the problem started when it decided to use EVMs in the panchayat polls instead of ballot papers. It approached the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) to buy the EVMs.

“We moved to buy around 15,000 multi-post EVMs consisting of one control unit and six ballot units attached to it to cover six types of posts at the three-tier local self-government level.

“These EVMs are different from the ones used by the EC and have ‘secured detachable memory module’. Their total cost would come to around Rs 122 crore,” SEC secretary Yogendra Ram told this newspaper.

The votes would get registered in these memory modules and they could be removed and stored and the EVMs could then be fitted with fresh memory modules and sent for further use in the next phase of polls.

There are a total of 1.2 lakh polling booths in the state at present and they were expected to go for voting in nine or 10 phases.

On the other hand, the EVMs used by the EC do not have detachable memory modules and each one consists of a control unit and ballot units. So for six different posts that would be up for local elections, at least 12 to 13 machines (control and ballot unit) would be needed. Moreover, they could not be rotated and all the booths would need separate EVMs.

“The EC wanted us to loan its second-generation M2 EVMs. It is currently using the third generation M3 EVMs for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. We refused because using them would become a logistical nightmare with our limited resources. Moreover, it would have charged us for the EVMs,” Yogendra said.

He said the SEC thought of introducing EVMs to bring transparency and cut down allegations of wrongdoing in the elections. States like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and many others are already using the EVMs in their local polls.

Yogendra pointed out that the EC withholding permission to the ECIL for supplying EVMs to Bihar was bizarre because it never did so with regard to other states.

“We finally moved the high court for justice. Let us see the outcome. We are just hoping that we get success in our endeavour,” Yogendra said.

Bihar chief electoral officer S.R. Srinivasa, who is in Kerala for the Assembly polls there, refused to comment on the issue over the telephone.