VARANASI: Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders and supporters created ruckus at the assembly poll counting venue in Pahadia area on Tuesday evening by claiming to have caught a truck loaded with electronic voting machines being taken inside the campus to replace actual EVMs of City South assembly seat.
Taking note of it, district election officer Kaushal Raj Sharma made it clear that EMVs used for voting in each of eight assembly areas had been stored in strong rooms under the supervision of ECI’s observers and also agents of all political parties. These EVMs have been kept under the security of central paramilitary forces as well as CCTV surveillance, he said.
“The EVMs on a truck caught by SP workers are for hands-on training of the counting staff. It was being taken to UP College from a separate store room of Pahadia Mandi for the second round training of counting staff scheduled on Wednesday,” he said adding, ''but rumours were fan deliberately to cause nuisance.”
Earlier, the SP leaders including candidate from Varanasi Cantt seat Puja Yadav started making audio messages viral claiming that EVMs had been caught by them. They claimed that these EVMs were being taken to replace the EVMs used for voting in the City South assembly seat. They were also giving calls to other workers for reaching Pahadia Mandi at earliest.
Similar drama was evident at Sonbhadra district headquarters at Robertsganj where SP leaders stopped some trucks claiming that they were carrying ballot papers and other poll material.
