usedNew Delhi, Dec 5 (PTI) Alleging that the electronicvoting machines (EVMs) used in the just-concluded UttarPradesh civic elections were rigged, the Samajwadi Party (SP)today claimed that the BJP won from only those places wherethe EVMs were used and performed poorly when it came to ballotpapers.
SP chief general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav also said theuse of voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines,along with EVMs, would enhance the confidence of the politicalparties as well as the candidates in the poll procedure.
Addressing a press conference here, Yadav pointed outthat while the BJP won 14 of the 16 mayoral posts in the civicpolls, the ruling party did poorly in the nagar panchayat andnagar palika parishad elections.
"The BJP won (in the civic polls) only at those placeswhere EVMs were used...votes cast in the EVMs in favour of thecandidates of the political parties were transferred to theindependents," he alleged.
Referring to statistics, Yadav said while the saffronparty got a 43 per cent vote share in the Uttar PradeshAssembly polls earlier this year, it went down to 30 per centin the civic polls.
Responding to a question on why arch rivals the SP andthe Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not join hands to defeat thesaffron party in the elections, he said, "Let the timecome...it is too early to say anything."While the BJP won 68 of the top posts in the nagarparishads, the SP won 45, BSP 29 and 43 posts were won byIndependent candidates.
Of the top posts in the nagar panchayats, the BJP won100, while the SP won 83 and BSP 45. The independents won 181of these posts. PTI NABRC.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.