Varanasi. Samajwadi Party (SP) workers protested outside an EVM strong room in Pahadia Mandi area of Varanasi on Tuesday. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleges that a truck carrying EVMs was stopped in Varanasi. A video of EVMs in the truck has gone viral on social media.
20 EVM machines were being taken away
After Akhilesh’s allegations, Varanasi District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma issued a clarification. He said, “Yesterday there is training of the counting staff of Varanasi in a college. 20 EVM machines were being taken for him. He was stopped by some people in a buggy. There was a confusion among those people that whether these are those EVM machines or not.
The commotion continues! https://t.co/aV6P2hsUFj pic.twitter.com/hTNceRPqwL
— Sanjay sharma (@Editor__Sanjay) March 8, 2022
All candidates have been called, list of EVMs that were used on polling day were mailed to them. Hard copy being given today. These 20 EVMs (for training), are separately kept in vehicle. Numbers are being matched & shown to candidates that these are not polled EVMs: Varanasi DM pic.twitter.com/jdUg0Utnsc
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) March 8, 2022
SP workers crowd
The District Magistrate said, “Later there was a crowd here. All the officers explained to him. Now the candidates and presidents of all the parties have been called to make it clear to all of you that the EVMs that were being carried were for all training.
Counting training without EVM
He said, “This EVM and that EVM are not linked to each other. Everything is being clarified. We have now decided that tomorrow the counting training of the employees will be done without EVMs.”
Varanasi District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma held a meeting with representatives of several parties after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s claims of electronic voting machines being manipulated 2 days before poll results pic.twitter.com/9TfI31eoI3
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) March 8, 2022
candidates meeting
The District Magistrate said, “All the candidates have been called. The list of EVMs used on the day of polling was mailed to them. Hard copy is being given today. These 20 EVMs (for training) are kept separately in the vehicle. The numbers are being tallied and the candidates are being shown that these polls are not EVMs.”