EVMs in UP rigged in favour of BJP, challenge PM for fresh polls: Mayawati

Lucknow: With the Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) leading in just 18 seats out of 403 in the Uttar Pradesh elections on Saturday, party chief Mayawati lashed out at the Centre, claiming that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) had been tampered with.

“Either the EVMs did not accept votes other than for BJP, or the votes of other parties have gone to BJP in the EVMs,” Mayawati said in a press conference immediately following the results.

“The BJP did not field a single Muslim candidate. Yet, most votes in Muslim majority constituencies have gone to BJP. This makes it evident that voting machines were manipulated,” she claimed.

“I have written to Election Commission in this regard. People no longer have faith in EVM machines,” Mayawati alleged.

The BSP chief claimed that a similar complaint was made by her partymen in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but she had preferred to stay silent thinking it was Modi wave and anti-Congress sentiment.

Mayawati said this trend will have a "very bad bearing" on democracy in the country and will amount to crushing it.

The BSP chief challenged PM Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah to once again conduct the election on a paper ballot if they were so sure of their victory.

The BJP soared to victory in the Hindi heartland on Saturday, leading in over 300 seats in what may turn out to be a three-fourths majority when counting is over. The SP-Congress alliance of CM Akhilesh Yadav and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi put up a poor show, with leads in only 67 seats.