‘SEC turned a blind eye to misuse of official machinery’

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party state president Naresh Uttam on Saturday said his party had given a written representation to the state election commission prior to polling not to use EVMs. “The commission not only did not heed our complaint, but also turned a blind eye to the gross misuse of power and official machinery by the ruling BJP in the election,” he alleged.

Uttam, along with party spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhary, said the BJP had lost miserably in nagar panchayat and palika parishad polls but was trying to hide its defeat by playing up the results of municipal corporations.

“The BJP would have lost in municipalities also had our national president ) campaigned in the election,” the leaders said.

They alleged the two mayoral seats won by the BSP were sponsored and secured with a tacit understanding with the BJP. Besides SP, several other political parties, including the Congress, have also alleged that EVMs are susceptible to tampering and malfunctioning. Over 500 EVMs out of more than 30,000 deployed in civic polls had to be replaced this time. The mayoral elections were fought on EVMs entirely while the others used ballot though the actual data is not available.

The BJP also secured 596 out of 1,300 municipal corporation wards, 70 out of 198 nagar palika parishad chairman posts and 100 out of 438 nagar panchayat chairpersons defeating its political opponents at all levels. While the BSP secured two mayor seats, Aligarh and Meerut, the SP and Congress scored a blank.