Akhilesh urges SC, President to take note as leaked audio of polling officer claims changing EVMs

The 'polling officer' identified himself as a teacher and told the person at the other end that he would 'never' accept polling duty in his life again

Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday urged the Supreme Court and the President to take cognisance of a leaked audio purportedly containing a conversation between two persons one of whom is a polling officer, who claimed that the EVMs were 'changed' on the polling booth in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district where he was deployed.

Akhilesh urged the SC and the President to also ensure security of the polling officer, who could be heard saying in the audio clip that he had been threatened by a police official, when he objected to the changing of the EVMs at his polling booth.

''The concerned person must be provided security....the life of a person is more important to us than forming a government,'' Akhilesh said in a post on his Twitter handle.

The ''polling officer'', who said that he was deployed at a polling booth at Kasimabad in Ghazipur district on March 7, during polling, claimed that two 'used' EVMs were 'changed' at his booth. ''I lodged a strong protest but a local SO (police station in-charge) threatened me. I was told that I would not only lose my job but also go to jail,'' the man was heard saying in the audio.

The ''polling officer'' identified himself as a teacher at a college in Chandauli district and told the person at the other end that he would 'never' accept polling duty in his life again.

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Akhilesh had, a day after the last phase of polling, 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.

Akhilesh had then claimed that SP workers had apprehended two trucks laden with EVMs near Pahadia Mandi in Varanasi where counting of votes for the assembly constituencies was to be taken up on the day of counting on Thursday. 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.

State BJP leaders, however, rubbished the charges and said that Akhilesh's allegations reflected his 'frustration'.

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