Videos show EVMs being stolen in UP: Akhilesh drops a bombshell

Even as the crucial northern state of Uttar Pradesh gears up for counting as the seven- phase voting schedule for the 2022 state assembly elections ended yesterday (March 7), the Samajwadi Party (SP), the key challenger to the ruling party BJP today dropped a bombshell alleging that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were spirited away from the counting centres in Varanasi.

The counting of votes is all set to be held on Thursday (March 10), as announced earlier by the Election Commission. The SP, which claims that it will win more than 300 seats in the state and oust the BJP from power, has said that the videos show that the vote machines were “stolen”.

The district magistrate (DM) of Varanasi, however, denied the allegation and explained that the EVMs were being taken to be used for training purposes. And that these EVMs were not the ones that were used for voting.

Also read: What the exit polls don’t tell: A big win in UP is no guarantee for BJP

Kaushal Raj Sharma, the DM, accused “some political parties” of “spreading rumours”. He said that the EVMs used in the elections “are all sealed in the strong room in the possession of CRPF and there is CCTV surveillance which is being watched by people of all political parties”, said news reports.

According to the DM, the EVMs were going to the UP College from a storage space at a separate food godown located in Mandi. “Tomorrow is the second training of the employees engaged in counting duty and these machines are always used for hands-on training,” he added, said a NDTV report.

Most opinion polls predicted that the BJP is going to win by a clear and convincing margin. Though, political pundits are skeptical and forecast that they will win about 100 seats fewer than their 2017 landslide victory.