The voting for all phases of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2022 is over. In light of this, the political parties have started to come out with their interpretations of the exit polls. With the polling results set to be released on March 10, the parties are also not letting go of opportunities to take digs at each other and justify their positions concerning the exit polls. One such incident came up when the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav accused that there has been an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) tampering at some places in Uttar Pradesh. The opposition raised some questions regarding the security of the EVMs.
The event mentioned above took place at a press conference on March 8 that Yadav was addressing. He accused the Election Commission (EC) officers of ballot machines and claimed to no longer have trust in the poll body. Yadav also accused the Varanasi District Magistrate (DM) of transporting the EVMs without giving any prior information to local candidates. He urged the EC to look into the accusation.
“We need to be alert if EVMs are being transported this way. This is theft. We need to save our votes. We may go to court against it, but before that, I want to appeal to people to save democracy,” PTI quoted him as saying. On Twitter, he warned all constituencies to be wary of voter fraud. Yadav said that the voter fraud being caught in Varanasi is a message to every assembly in UP to remain alert.
Response of the EC
The issue of vote tampering has been brought up many times in the previous and present assembly elections despite Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra unequivocally refuting any claims of the same. Still, parties of all affiliations continue to allege ballot fraud in every election.
Akhilesh Yadav asked the candidates from his party to be on their toes regarding thwarting any possible attempts of tampering. He urged them to be ready with their cameras to “protect youth democracy and future” and to become “soldiers in the counting of voter”.
Yadav on exit polls
Yadav also commented on the exit polls that came out a few hours after the final phase of polling. If most exit polls are believed, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a lead on the SP in UP. However, he said that these polls only want to create the perception that BJP is winning, adding the reality on the ground wasn’t consistent with the predictions.
“The Samajwadi Party is winning Ayodhya, that is why the BJP is scared. Exit polls want to create a perception that the BJP is winning. This is the last fight for democracy,” he was quoted by India Today as saying. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar also supported SP over the EVM issue. The party targeted the EC officials by calling them, traitors.
Yadav also claimed that SP and its allies would form the government in UP by winning 300+ seats.
