'Rigging' row intensifies in UP: SP shares video of official admitting to lapse; BSP claims VVPAT slips burnt

The ECI's clarification however did little to calm the tempers as the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday shared the video of District Election Officer, Varanasi, Deepak Agarwal admitting to a “lapse” in the movement of the EVMs.

Lucknow: The Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have upped the ante over their allegations of rigging of votes hours ahead of the counting day for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Yadav on Tuesday said that EVMs had been “caught in Varanasi” thereby “giving a message to every assembly of UP to be alert”. “The news of EVM being caught in Varanasi is giving a message to every assembly of UP to be alert. All the candidates and supporters of SP-alliance should be ready with their cameras to thwart the attempt of rigging in the counting of votes. To protect youth democracy and future, become soldiers in counting of votes!,” he wrote in a Twitter post in Hindi. Later, the SP also presented a memorandum to the ECI over the incident.

In a statement issued late Tuesday night, the Election Commission said the EVMs were “marked for training of counting officers” in the district schedule on Wednesday. The ECI said the machines were being brought from the storage in a warehouse located in Mandi to the training site at UP College where a second training session is to be held on counting. “However, people from some political parties tried to stop these EVM machines from being taken for training. Along with this, rumours were spread by calling it electronic voting machines used in elections. All the Electronic Voting Machines used for voting are sealed inside the strong room and secured in a three-tier security cover of the central paramilitary forces,” the ECI said.

The ECI's clarification however did little to calm the tempers as the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday shared the video of District Election Officer, Varanasi, Deepak Agarwal admitting to a “lapse” in the movement of the EVMs. "If you talk about the protocol for the movement of EVMs, there was a lapse in the protocol, I accept that. But I can guarantee you that it is impossible to take away the machines used in voting," the DC Varanasi said, adding that the EVMs were under CCTV surveillance and guarded by security guards and political party representatives at counting centres.

The SP shared the DC's video on its official Twitter handle saying the “protocol was not followed in EVM movement”. “Election Commission protocol was not followed in EVM movement - Commissioner Varanasi EVM tampering is being received in many districts. At whose behest is this happening? Are the officers being pressurized from the CM Office?” it wrote.

While the SP is alleging EVM “tampering”, Bahujan Samaj Party's Syedaraja candidate, Amit Yadav sat on a dharna on Tuesday night saying the VVPAT slips of the opposition parties were burnt at a counting centre in Chandauli. Yadav alleged that slips of various parties are being burnt at the polling station located in Amadpur village of the assembly constituency. The recovered slips, he said include slips of Bahujan Samaj Party, SP, Congress and NOTA adding, “Not a single slip of BJP was found out of these”. The BSP candidate along with the workers including the district president of the organisation sat on a dharna at the Naveen Mandi site and demanded re-election.

Former BSP district president Ghanshyam Pradhan echoed Yadav saying the matter “raises questions on the fairness of the voting process the apprehension of which was already being expressed”. “The matter of Amadpur village booth number 72 came on the table. But there will be hundreds of such booths where there will be widespread disturbances. In such a situation, this is not just an apprehension, but it has been confirmed that such rigging would have happened in the entire assembly. In such a situation, the process of voting in the Syedaraja assembly should be done again,” he said.

The protesting BSP workers ended the dharna only after the assurance of action by SDM Sadar, Avnish Kumar. District Election Officer Sanjeev Singh also spoke to the people over the phone and assured action after investigating the matter. Pertinently, the opposition parties in UP have been alleging rigging in the election process after the exit polls predicted a sweeping win for the BJP.