An SUV transporting an electronic voting machine found itself partially submerged in a river when the water level rose abruptly, causing a mechanised boat carrying it to be washed away in Assam’s Lakhimpur constituency on Friday, officials said.
Both the driver and the polling officer managed to evacuate the vehicle before the rushing waters engulfed it, officials told the local media.
The SUV was en route to the Amarpur area in Sadiya to replace a malfunctioning EVM detected at the onset of polling in the morning, the official said.
According to the official, a sudden surge in water levels of the Deopani river caused the accident as the mechanised boat tried to ferry the vehicle carrying the EVM to the nearby polling station.
In response to the incident, a State Disaster Response Force team was summoned to retrieve the vehicle from the water.
The EVM intended for replacement sustained damage during the accident, the official said.