AAP demanded that the election commission allows AAP workers and volunteers to camp outside the strongrooms housing the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to guard and ensure that EVMs are not tampered after exit polls predicted a landslide win for the party in Delhi elections that concluded on Saturday.
The demand was made by party leader Sanjay Singh after a meeting to discuss EVM safety, which was also attended by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and poll strategist Prashant Kishor.
“Arrangements must be made outside the strong room for our party workers and our MLAs, so that they can guard and make sure that EVMs are not tampered,” said Singh.
Singh alleged that some EVMs that should have been in the strongroom were still with polling officers.
“EVMs that should be taken directly to strong room after getting sealed,are still with some officers. It is an incident of Babarpur.A similar incident is being reported from Vishwas Nagar,” Singh said.
Singh’s allegation followed a tweet by another senior AAP leader Gopal Rai, which was put out on AAP’s twitter account, alleging that one polling official had been caught with an EVM in Babarpur assembly constituency after machines had been locked in the strong room.
“All the EVMs were sent to the strong room in our Babarpur assembly constituency after voting ended and one polling officer was caught with an EVM at the Saraswati Vidya Niketan polling station. I appeal to the election commission that this incident is acted upon immediately,” the tweet attributed to Gopal Rai said.
{{/usCountry}}“All the EVMs were sent to the strong room in our Babarpur assembly constituency after voting ended and one polling officer was caught with an EVM at the Saraswati Vidya Niketan polling station. I appeal to the election commission that this incident is acted upon immediately,” the tweet attributed to Gopal Rai said.
{{/usCountry}}Around the same time a stock taking meeting was held in the capital by the BJP top brass including home minister Amit Shah and party president Jagat Prakash Nadda.
BJP leaders, who spoke to media after the meeting, dismissed the exit poll projections and said the ground reality was different.
“We don’t believe in exit polls, we believe in exact polls. Exit polls have often proved wrong in the past,” Prakash Javadekar said before adding that 2020 polls in Delhi were vastly different from the 2015 elections that were swept by Kejriwal’s party.
Meenakshi Lekhi said, “The picture on the ground is different from what has been projected by exit polls”.
Five exit polls have projected a comfortable majority for Aam Aadmi Party which had fought a fierce election campaign battle with the BJP.
A tweet attributing AAP “volunteers” suggested the projections were a testimony to Kejriwal’s good work that touched the lives of all Delhi residents.
“You @ArvindKejriwal knocked every door, took AAP’s work to every household, spent sleepless nights in front of the screens and made this campaign one of a kind. You proved it once again – Passion wins everytime it is pitted against money,” said the tweet.
Five exit polls, Times Now- IPSOS, REPUBLIC-Jan Ki Baat, NewsX POLSTRAT, ABP-C Voter and India Today- AXIS have projected between 44 and 68 seats for AAP and 2-26 seats for the BJP. All five don’t see the Congress crossing the tally of five seats.