According to an official statement, the commissioning will take place at locations designated by the respective District Election Officers (DEOs). The exercise will be carried out with the assistance of authorised engineers and technical personnel from the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL).

Officials stated that the entire procedure will be conducted in the presence of contesting candidates or their authorised representatives to maintain transparency and ensure strict compliance with the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India.

During the exercise, a total of 41,353 Ballot Units (BUs), 45,572 Control Units (CUs) and 44,830 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units will be commissioned. This figure also includes reserve machines - 9,863 BUs, 14,082 CUs and 13,340 VVPAT units - which will be kept on standby for contingencies.

The state will have 31,490 polling stations where around 2.51 crore registered voters are expected to cast their ballots in the election.

As part of the commissioning procedure, symbols will be loaded into each VVPAT using a Symbol Loading Unit (SLU). The symbols uploaded to the machines will be displayed simultaneously on the monitor or television screens so that candidates and their representatives can verify them.

To further strengthen transparency in the electoral process, candidates or their representatives will be allowed to randomly select up to five per cent of the EVMs and VVPATs for mock polls.

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer said that commissioning of EVMs is a critical stage in election preparedness and is being conducted with great care to ensure accuracy, transparency and the integrity of the electoral process.

Assam polls: ECI approves over 26,000 electors for home voting

Polling for the 126-member Assam Assembly is scheduled to take place on April 9, while the counting of votes will be held on May 4.

Notably, this will be the first Assembly election in the state after the delimitation exercise carried out in 2023.