Lucknow In a meeting with the Election Commission of India (ECI) team on Thursday, the opposition parties raised the issue of alleged malfunctioning in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), irregularities in electoral rolls, abuse of government machinery by the ruling party and strict enforcement of the model code of conduct during elections .
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation urged the poll panel for checking voters who arrived at polling booths with their faces covered under burqas or veils, at multiple levels by women staff to curb bogus voting during the Lok Sabha election. The poll panel was also urged to conduct the polling process under video cameras at all the polling booths across the state.
The Election Commission (EC) team led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar was in Lucknow for three days to review the preparation in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections .
The Election Commission team met the representatives of national and regional political parties, including Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India, Indian National Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Samajwadi Party in a meeting organized in Yojana Bhawan on Thursday.
Talking to media persons after the meeting, Samajwadi Party (SP) state unit president Naresh Uttam Patel said the SP delegation told the ECI that people had lost faith in EVMs and ballot papers should be used in the polling. “The ECI told us that EVMs will be used in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Samajwadi Party will participate in the electoral process and during the counting of votes when a candidate raises demand for recounting of votes then instead of counting slips of five voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs) the ECI should order recounting of the slips of all the VVPATs,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Talking to media persons after the meeting, Samajwadi Party (SP) state unit president Naresh Uttam Patel said the SP delegation told the ECI that people had lost faith in EVMs and ballot papers should be used in the polling. “The ECI told us that EVMs will be used in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Samajwadi Party will participate in the electoral process and during the counting of votes when a candidate raises demand for recounting of votes then instead of counting slips of five voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs) the ECI should order recounting of the slips of all the VVPATs,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Patel said the SP also raised objection to the ECI direction to the political parties to refrain from using children in election campaigns. “Elections are considered a festival of our democracy and people of all age groups, including children, participate in the election activities. The ruling party might misuse the Child Labour Act for action against the opposition parties,” he said.
The SP also drew the attention of the ECI toward irregularities in electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh. During the revision of voters lists, 30.85 lakh names of the voters had been removed while the names of 57.29 lakh voters had been added. Today there were 15.30 crore voters in UP. “We told the panel that names of the supporters of the SP have been deleted from the voters lists. The anomalies in the voters lists should be corrected before the poll,” he said.
Congress delegation, including deputy leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha, Pramod Tiwari, former MP PL. Punia and Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra Mona raised the issue of abuse of official machinery by the ruling BJP in the coming Lok Sabha election, uniformity in voters lists and deletion of names of voters during the revision of electoral roll.
The Congress delegation also expressed dissatisfaction over the reply of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on the complaint lodged by the party regarding the fire in the strong room of the election warehouse in Farrukhabad district in which several EVMs were destroyed.
Large scale transfer of administrative and police officers was being carried out before the start of the election process with the aim of misusing the election machinery during poll. The transfers of officers should be stopped immediately and those made in the past three months should be reviewed by the ECI, the Congress leaders said.
The BSP delegation led by state unit president Vishwanath Pal raised the demand for strict measures to conduct free and fair polling during the Lok Sabha election.
The BJP delegation, including cooperative minister JPS Rathor, state general secretary Sanjay Rai and state convenor Arunkant Tripathi raised the demand for setting up of polling booths in multi-storied buildings and residential societies to ensure participation of maximum voters, proper seating arrangement at polling booths for the elderly and disabled voters, transparent electoral rolls and a clear cut guideline for the installation of party flags and wall writing in the Lok Sabha election.
BOX
REVIEW MEETING
The 13-member team of the Election Commission of India led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Arun Goel, which reached Lucknow on Thursday, began the visit with the launch of an exhibition based on the evolution of India’s electoral system organized in Yojana Bhawan.
The commission also held a review meeting with the UP CEO, Navdeep Rinwa, state police nodal officer Prashant Kumar, CAPF nodal officer L R Kumar, Central CAPF nodal officer Satpal Rawat and additional director general, law and order Amitabh Yash. The ECI discussed the arrangements for holding free, fair and peaceful voting in the state.
The Election Commission will also hold a meeting of the DMs/ SPs of the 75 districts as well as the returning officers of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies, divisional commissioners, IGP (Zones) and DIG (Ranges) in a meeting on Friday.
To ensure the implementation of the model code of conduct, expenditure control, peaceful conduct of the election the Commission will hold meeting with the officers of various government departments including income tax, narcotics, transport, trade tax, railways, civil aviation and banks.