UP Polls: SP workers create ruckus over VVPAT slips at counting centre in Prayagraj

The district magistrate/district election officer Sanjay Kumar Khatri met the agitating SP workers and brought the situation under control.

Samajwadi Party (SP) officials and workers created ruckus on Mundera Mandi premises on Wednesday when some voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips were found in a box.

Officials trying to pacify agitated SP leaders and workers near Mundera Mandi premises on Wednesday. (ht photo)

The district magistrate/district election officer Sanjay Kumar Khatri met the agitating SP workers and brought the situation under control. He assured them that the slips were nothing but old VVPAT slips printed by the electronic voting machine (EVM) prior to polling.

One of the women SP workers alleged that she saw a person on election duty carrying a box and when she called him, he left the box. When the same was opened, some slips were found, she claimed. After this, SP workers started arriving at the Mundera Mandi, alleging that the district administration was indulging in some malpractice to give advantage to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“On getting the news, we rushed to the centre and after examining the entire situation told the agitating SP workers that the slips were in fact ‘testing slips’ which were generated when the engineers of EVMs ready the machine for the polling prior to voting,” said DEO Khatri.

However, district president of SP, Yogesh Chandra Yadav said, “If the VVPAT were old and had nothing to do with polling, what was the reason for bringing them to the counting site. Such acts raise serious suspicion and we have informed the party higher officials about the incident.”