Akhilesh alleges tampering with EVMs in UP, asks party workers to be alert

The SP chief said that ballots had been found in Bareilly and Sonbhadra

Samajwadi Party (SP) president and BJP's main rival in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday alleged that officials in some districts were 'tampering' with the EVMs on the direction of a senior bureaucrat, who was chief minister Yogi Adityanath's principal secretary, and asked his party workers to be on the alert and 'guard' the strongrooms where the EVMs had been kept.

Akhilesh's charge came after SP workers apprehended two trucks laden with EVMs near Pahadia Mandi in Varanasi where counting of votes for the assembly constituencies would be taken up on Thursday. The SP workers staged a dharna on the road demanding explanation from the officials, who claimed that the EVMs which were on the trucks were not used in the polling process.

Varanasi district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said that these EVMs were being taken to a nearby college for the purpose of imparting training to the officials who would be involved in the counting process. The police had a tough time in rescuing the drivers of the two trucks who were held hostage by the SP workers.

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''The EVMs used in the polling are sealed and kept in the strongroom under CCTV surveillance and central paramalitary force protection.....the EVMs which were not used in the polling were being taken for training purpose but some political parties are spreading rumours that they were used in polling,'' Sharma said.

Speaking to the reporters, Akhilesh, however, said that the district magistrates had been directed to 'slow' the counting process on the seats where the BJP was 'losing'.

He also said that the exit polls' prediction about a BJP win in UP was a 'ploy' to 'create the perception' that the BJP was winning so that any allegation of 'tampering' with the EVMs could be countered. ''We have received similar reports from Bareilly and Sonebhadra districts also,'' Akhilesh said.

He suspected that the officials could try to influence the outcome of the polls on the seats where the BJP had never registered a win and also where the margin of victory of the BJP in previous polls was less than five thousand. ''There are 47 seats which BJP has never won,'' he added.

The SP president also asked his party workers to be ready with their cameras and remain alert. ''The UP poll is the final battle for democracy,'' he said.

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