NEW DELHI: A new question mark was put on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) as they helped the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) sweep 14 of the 16 mayor’s posts but the party lost miserably in other elections of the local urban bodies in Uttar Pradesh that were conducted with the ballot papers.
The social media was quick to question why the BJP swept the EVM-based polls but lost in four other local elections held with the ballot papers. The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission also released the statistics of the results declared on Friday on its website <http://sec.up.nic.in/eleclive/ULBResult.html> confirming this discrepancy.
Sanajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, who have been the state’s chief ministers, also claimed the BJP perpetuating the “EVM fraud” to win the elections.
They cited how the BJP won 14 of the 16 posts of the Mayor where the polls were conducted with the EVMs, but fared miserably in all other civic elections conducted with the ballot paper. The BSP had won two Mayor posts. “BJP has won only 15% seats in ballot paper areas and 46% in EVM areas,” Yadav tweeted.
The official break-up of the Uttar Pradesh elections confirmed the figures viral on the social media since early morning showing the BJP’s poor show in all polls, except those of the mayors, conducted through the ballot papers.
The Congress appeared quite upset as the BJP may repeat the same “EVM magic” of UP in Gujarat that goes to the Assembly poll just a week away on December 9 in the first phase and on December 14 in the second phase.
It is preparing a case to go before the Election Commission as well as approach the Supreme Court to reiterate its demand to count paper slips of the VVPAT (verifiable paper audit trail) machines to be attached to all EVMs in Gujarat to let the people be assured of no hanky-panky in alleged tampering of the EVMs. The party’s legal experts are studying the official data of the UP urban local elections to raise the issue.
