Varanasi: Amid allegations of rigging ahead of counting of votes for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections on Thursday, the Bahujan Samaj Party has demanded re-election in the Sayedaraja assembly segment of Chandauli.
Bahujan Samaj Party's candidate from the Syedaraja seat, Amit Yadav staged a dharna on Tuesday night saying the VVPAT slips of opposition parties were burnt at a counting centre in Chandauli. Yadav alleged that slips of various parties were burnt at the polling station located in Amadpur village of the assembly constituency. The recovered slips, he said included 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.
The BSP's rigging allegations come amid SP's claims that EVMs were being transported in Varanasi in violation of the protocol. The Election Commission however denied the allegations saying the EVMs being transported in the district were “marked for training”.
