Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s efforts to forge unity among opposition parties against the BJP ahead of 2019 lok Sabha elections suffered a setback with the Bahujan Samaj party and Congress staying away from a meeting in lucknow on Saturday. Even, Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya lok Dal also stayed away from the meeting.
Some smaller parties however attended the meeting which also discussed about evolving a common stand against the use of EVMs in elections and demand the use of ballot papers.
Though the meeting was on the issue of EVMs, it was being seen as an attempt by Samajwadi Party to forge a grand alliance of opposition parties to take on the BJP.
One of the agenda of the meeting was also to discuss joint candidates for the by-poll to Gorakhpur and Kaushambi lok Sabha seats.
Puttingup a brave front, Senior SP leader and leader of Opposition in Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary said that all parties in the opposition favour election by ballot papers instead of EVMs. He said that the Congress has affirmed its support to Akhilesh Yadav’s demand of polling though ballot. He said that the next meeting on the issue would be held next week and the Congress has said that its delegation would participate in it.
State Samajwadi Party chief Naresh Uttam had sent out invites to all parties on behalf of Akhilesh Yadav for a discussion over of EVMs and forging a joint front to spearhead a campaign against its use in polls.
Uttam said that there was no option but to shift to the old ballot paper system of voting to save democracy in the country as manipulation and tampering of EVMs has been well known. He claimed that all parties will have to close ranks against the use of EVMs to save democracy in the country.
leader of smaller parties who attended the meeting were Suresh Niranjan of Janata Dal (United - Sharad Yadav faction), Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party state chief Ramesh Dikshit, Ashok Singh of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Pallavi Patel of Apna Dal (Krishna Patel faction) Gaurav Maheshawari of Aam Adami Party, Sanjay Singh of Janwadi Party, former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui and leaders of CPI and CPM.
Soon after the 2017 Assembly poll, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had alleged tampering of EVMs where his party suffered the worst ever defeat at the hands of the BJP and was restricted to mere 47 seats. later in April 2017, after Special Task Force of UP Police detected tampering of dispensing machines at petrol pumps , Akhilesh had said that if petrol could be stolen through a chip without an internet connection, then EVMs could also be tampered with.
After the municipal elections in November last year, Akhilesh once again alleged that the BJP won only 15% seats in areas where ballot paper was used and 46% where EVMs were used. Without citing any data he had said that he was forced to say there was some issue with the EVMs.
BSP supremo Mayawati too had alleged that tampering of EVMs led to big victory of the BJP in Assembly elections. Mayawati alleged that EVMs used in the Assembly poll may not have accepted any votes except those in favour of BJP.
She also questioned as to how votes in Muslim-dominated constituencies went in favour of the BJP. She also wrote to Election Commission in this regard saying that people did not have in EVMs and it was evident that these machines were manipulated.