With the Election Commission of India rejecting the demand of opposition parties to conduct the Lok Sabha polls through traditional ballot papers, the Samajwadi Party has decided to deploy ‘booth rakshaks’ to prevent tampering with electronic voting machines (EVMs) during polling.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav has appointed booth rakshaks in all the 1,63,331 booths in the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state for the Lok Sabha polls. They will work for the alliance candidates whether of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party or Rashtriya Lok Dal.
The task of these booth workers will be to see that no EVM is tampering with and monitor the functioning of VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines.
These booth rakshaks will also ensure that all the voters get easy access to the polling booth and there is no hindrance in casting their votes.
Yadav has also given the mantra of “booth nahi batne denge, vote nahi ghatne denge” (no division of booths, no reduction of votes) to the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha to ensure victory of alliance candidates.
Yadav has also appealed to all the party workers to strengthen the alliance as mahagathbandhan of SP-BSP-RLD is the only way to stop Bharatiya Janata Party in the state.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Choudhury said here that the booth rakshaks would also highlight the works done during the previous Akhilesh Yadav regime and the failures of the present Yogi Adityanath government in the state.