Samajwadi Party (SP) has tweeted a video where an election official was shown accepting there were “lapses” during the movement of electronic voting machines (EVM).
The district commissioner of Varanasi Deepak Agarwal had accepted in front of the reporters that there was a lapse in following the protocol to move EVMs. He claimed that those voting machines were used for training purposes.
“If you talk about the protocol for the movement of EVMs, there was a lapse in the protocol, I accept that. But I can guarantee you, it is impossible to take away machines used in voting,” Agarwal said.
According to sources, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered action against Agarwal over the issue.
The SP chief and former chief minister of UP Akhilesh Yadav had earlier made a remark on moving EVMs. He accused the ruling BJP of “stealing the election.” He further said candidates or party workers must be informed whenever EVMs, either training or reserve, are moved out.
“In Varanasi, we caught one truck with EVMs and two others fled. If the government is not trying to steal votes, then it should at least explain why there was no security while moving EVMs,” Yadav said on Tuesday.
The Twitter handle of SP shared the video and said the official has admitted protocol was not followed.
“There is information of violations in EVMs from various districts. On whose order is this happening? Are officials under pressure from the Chief Minister’s Office? The Election Commission must clarify,” the party tweeted.
मुरादाबाद की बिलारी विधानसभा से सपा प्रत्याशी ने हजारों की संख्या में खाली मतपत्र पकड़े हैं।
इन मतपत्रों को बिलारी तहसीलदार मतगणना केंद्र पर क्यों एवं किसके कहने पर लेकर गए थे? क्या उद्देश्य था?
चुनाव आयोग कृपया स्पष्ट करे @ECISVEEP @ceoup pic.twitter.com/Mxwtq8JcPj
— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) March 9, 2022
However, the deputy chief minister of UP Keshav Prasad Maurya rejected the allegations made by SP.
“I would ask Akhilesh Yadav to be patient. What is in the EVMs will be known on March 10 (Thursday) when votes are counted,” he said.
