Shocked by the pathetic performance of their party in recently concluded assembly elections in Uttarakhand, the leaders of the state unit of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are now toeing the line of their President Mayawati and blaming the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for their electoral debacle. The state unit of the party has decided to hold protest meetings in the state capital and other places to vent its anger. The BSP President Mayawati had called the leaders of Uttarakhand to luckhnow on Wednesday to discuss the poll results.
The state President of BSP, Bhrigurasion Rao told The Pioneer that the party has taken the issue of tampering with EVMs to give advantage to BJP to the court. He said that Behenji (Mayawati) has directed that continuous agitation should be held in the state to create awareness among the people about the ploy of the BJP. The state BSP chief said that the party would start agitation in Dehradun from April 11. “On the day of voting many people complained that after casting their vote no sound emanated from the EVM. I initially scoffed at these complaints but later similar complaints were received from many constituencies. Such complaints were received more in the areas where population of Dalits and Muslims is on a higher side. When we discussed the poll results with leaders of neighboring Uttar Pradesh we realized that there is a pattern in such complaints of tampering of EVM. The suspicion of fiddling with EVM increases when one finds BJP candidates securing sweeping victories in Muslim dominated constituencies,’’ he said.
The BSP leader said that the party was expecting good show in many constituencies of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts as party workers had done hard work there but the results are shocking and point towards some mischief.
The reaction of BSP leaders and their blame game on EVMs is understandable as the party registered its worst ever performance in Uttarakhand ever since the creation of the state. In these elections the party failed to win even a single seat.
What is more painful for the party that its vote share which was consistently on rise from last three elections took a plunge in the just concluded elections. The party secured 10.9. 11.8 and 12.2 percent votes in the elections of 2002, 2007 and 2012 respectively but in the recent assembly elections its vote share dipped to 7 percent.