Fearing the hacking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), state Samajwadi Party president Naresh Uttam has written to UP Chief Electoral Officer to install jammers near counting centres and not to allow excessive use of mobile phones there.
Polling for 403 Assembly seats concluded in the seventh phase on March 7 and the counting of votes will start from 8 am at all voting centres across the state on March 10.
In a letter to the Election Commission of India, Uttam said that there was a fear of hacking of EVMs and therefore excessive use of mobile phones should not be allowed and jammers be installed there.
The Samajwadi Party has also demanded that counting of votes should start with postal ballots and EVM counting should be taken up after counting of paper ballots is over.
“If the District Magistrates did not start the process by counting paper ballots, Samajwadi Party workers will stage dharna at the counting centres,” he said.
The directives were issued after Exit Polls were released by several news channels pointing towards a thumping majority to the BJP in the just concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
"Everyone has seen the gatherings at SP rallies, people have seen that Akhilesh Yadav was able to touch every issue and how people responded to him. The Exit Polls were an attempt to create a situation to help the ruling party to rig the counting,” Uttam said.
The SP leader further said that the party brass has asked all the workers to be on high alert during counting. “The party workers are already guarding the locker rooms where the EVMs have been in each district,” he said.