Conducting elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Naxal-hit Bastar in Chhattisgarh will be the key challenges for the Election Commission of India, which is set to announce the dates for the Lok Sabha poll anytime now.With about one million polling booths — 10% more than in the 2014 parliamentary elections — being installed across the country for over 880 million voters, India is gearing up for the world’s biggest display of democracy again.talks about the challenges EC is facing ahead of the April-May poll and how it has been dealing with them in an interview with ET. Edited excerpts:Conducting elections in areas affected by LWE (Left Wing Extremism) is always a challenge. The percentage of voters in those areas still went up to about 76% in the recent state elections even though threats were issued by Maoists. We are expecting an even better participation during this election. For Jammu and Kashmir, we have a strategy in place. I can’t disclose much at this stage, but elections will be conducted in such a way that it will be easier for the forces to move. We will take all the necessary steps to ensure that elections in Jammu and Kashmir are held in the most peaceful, and free and fair manner.As far as booth capturing is concerned, it’s history now. The Election Commission has always been concerned about the misuse of money. There will be a greater focus on constituencies that are more susceptible to the misuse of money power. Also, the cVIGIL mobile app, through which citizens can complain of such misuse, will be used nationwide, for the first time. In the recently held state elections, we received about 20,000 complaints, of which 70% turned out to be correct.It’s a free country. We can’t stop people from making accusations. The EC has a job to do. We have a constitutional mandate and we adhere to that. I want to reassure the people of India that the Election Commission never acts under pressure from anyone.The heat-related problems in VVPAT have already been addressed. It won’t malfunction in the coming poll. In the recent elections in five states, more than 1.74 lakh machines were used. The VVPAT failure rate in Chhattisgarh, for example, was less than 1.7%.The political representations that we had received did not ask for a return to the ballot, but to increase the number of VVPATs. According to the EC’s existing policy, we recount the paper trails in one polling station in one assembly segment, randomly. This is to crosscheck if there’s any variation between the EVM’s results and the VVPAT count. Till now, there have been 1,500 VVPAT counts in the past elections. Not in a single count has there been any variation. Some political parties are demanding that we count VVPAT in 50% polling stations. The EC has asked the Indian Statistical Institute to recommend to us as to what should be a scientific and rational size for random sampling.In a total 1.74 lakh polling stations, there were six such instances of EVMs or VVPATs being mishandled during transportation. Yes, we agree, not even these six incidents should have taken place. But let me clarify that none of these six machines was used for voting. All those were under reserve.We are brothers in arms.