Ghaziabad: Samajwadi Party raises concern about security of EVMs

The Ghaziabad unit of the Samajwadi Party (SP) said on Wednesday that their workers will be deployed outside the Govindpuram Anaj Mandi where the counting for five assembly seats of the district will take place on Thursday

Raising concerns about the safety of the electronic voting machines (EVMs), the Ghaziabad unit of the Samajwadi Party (SP) said on Wednesday that their workers will be deployed outside the Govindpuram Anaj Mandi where the counting for five assembly seats of the district will take place on Thursday.

Samajwadi Party workers at Govindpuram Anaj Mandi on the eve of election results, in Ghaziabad on Wednesday. (Sakib Ali /HT)

The concerns were raised after the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday launched an attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of trying to “steal votes” by manipulating the EVMs.

“They (BJP) are trying to kill democracy. The counting should take place in a transparent manner. Our workers will move to Govindpuram counting centre on Thursday and keep a check on the vehicles moving in and out. This is to ensure that there is no irregularity with respect to the EVMs,” said Rashid Malik, district president of the SP.

“For the past one month since the polling ended, about a dozen of our workers were at Govindpuram centre to keep an eye on the EVMs stored there,” he added.

Officials of the Ghaziabad administration said that there is absolutely no issue with the EVMs and central paramilitary forces have been keeping a strict vigil on them since the polling ended on February 10.

“Each of the contesting candidates were allowed to keep their three agents at the counting centre in eight-hour shifts. It was done so that there is no allegation raised as regards the storage and security of EVMs. Since February 10, none of the candidates, including the SP candidate, lodged a complaint or raised issues about the security of the 3,242 EVMs kept at the Govindpuram centre,” said Vivek Srivastava, additional district election officer.

“If any party’s workers gather outside the counting centre on Thursday, we will take a note as prohibitory orders are in place. There is a three-layer security at the counting centre,” said Srivastava.

The BJP said that the allegations were raised by the SP leaders only after the exit polls predicted victory for the ruling party. “It is just a face-saving tactic by the SP and its leaders as they know that they will lose the elections. So, they are trying to make a ground to deal with their loss,” said Chandra Mohan, spokesperson of the BJP’s state unit.

Both the BJP and the SP are locked in a tough fight for the 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. The results will start coming in from across the state on the counting day on March 10.

The district unit of the Bhujan Samaj Party (BSP) said that they have been keeping an eye on the EVMs since the polling ended on February 10.

“A team of our workers has been keeping an eye on the EVMs stored at the counting centre. We are ensuring that the counting remains transparent and fair,” said Virendra Jatav, district president of the BSP.