Former Biramitrapur MLA George Tirkey, who unsuccessfully contested polls from the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat as the Congress candidate this time, on Wednesday said EVM hacking and sabotaging by some of his party leaders are main reasons behind his defeat.
In support of his arguments, Tirkey said Jual Orad had won the seat in 2014 because there was a Modi wave and promises of establishing a super speciality hospital and constructing a second Brahmani bridge over the Brahmani river were made by Modi.
Oram had got only 3.40 lakh votes then. While none of the two promises were met, Oram lost trust of tribals and there was no Modi wave this time, Oram unbelievably got 5.56 lakh votes this time.
Tirkey said he toured the entire Sundargarh district to get feedback from voters. He was convinced that people had voted in favour of the Congress but the votes were shifted to the BJP through EVM manipulation. Second reason he found is that that in many places certain Congress leaders had sabotaged EVMs. Though he couldn’t take any leaders’ name, his indication was at party leader Hemananda Biswal, whose elder daughter was contesting for the LS.
He said he has already submitted the names to the party and sought disciplinary action against them. If party doesn’t take any action, he would be forced to stop those leaders to function in the district.
He also questioned the victory of BJD candidates in thye Rourkela and Raghunathpalli Assembly segments when “people were fed up with failures of the BJD Government”.
Tirkey asserted that he would continue to work for people of the district despite his losing the election. Among others, Congress MLA candidates of Rourkela, Raghunathpalli and Biramitrapur were present.