Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati dismissed the Uttar Pradesh assembly election results on Saturday afternoon and called for fresh polls, hours after trends and results indicated a crushing victory for her outfit in India’s largest state.
Speaking to reporters, Mayawati accused the BJP – which appeared on course for a two-thirds majority in the 403-member assembly – of murdering democracy and said tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) was responsible for her party’s poor showing.
“Either the EVMs did not accept votes other than BJP, or the votes of other parties have gone to BJP in the EVMs,” news agency ANI quoted the Dalit leader as saying.
Either the EVMs did not accept votes other than BJP, or the votes of other parties have gone to BJP in the EVMs: Mayawati pic.twitter.com/qF741k0DpT
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11, 2017
She said she had written to the election commission to cancel the election results. The BSP – which was attempting to forge a Dalit-Muslim alliance – was pushed to a dismal third position, leading in just 20-odd seats.
On the other side Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on today took “responsibility” for the party’s below-par performance in Punjab but alleged that large-scale irregularities in electronic voting machines (EVMs) had transferred a fourth of the Aam Aadmi Party’s votes to opponents.
Kejriwal’s AAP finished with 20 seats in the 117-member Punjab assembly after internal surveys pointed to a sweep for the party. Speaking to the media for the first time since the election results were announced on March 13, Kejriwal said: “Being party chief, I take the responsibility (for the defeat).”
AAP was a distant second behind the Congress on 77 seats, and just ahead of the ruling BJP-Shiromani Akali Dal alliance on 18. Linking the BJP-SAD’s performance to EVMs, Kejriwal asked: “Many said that there is anger against Akalis and AAP is sweeping the polls. Still, AAP got 25% votes and SAD got 31%. How is that possible?”
Suggesting that 20-25% of AAP’s vote share may have shifted to the Akali Dal due to the EVMs, he said: “Developed countries have given up EVMs. Should we not rethink? Even the BJP including Advaniji had said EVMs can be tampered with.”
He further said that while it was too late to do anything about the Punjab poll result, it was the responsibility of the Election Commission to “restore faith in the electoral process”. “It is the Election Commission’s responsibility to keep people’s faith in EVMs. They cannot shirk this responsibility,” Kejriwal said.
“We have five and nine volunteers at booths in Hargobind Nagar and Khemkaran while we got only one and five votes respectively. Where have these other votes gone? Who will give reply? This certainly creates suspicion,” he added.
On March 14, Kejriwal had joined a chorus of leaders, including Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati, who had questioned EVMs after the election results in five states — Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. Kejriwal has also called for paper ballots to be use in the MCD elections to be held in Delhi on April 22.