Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav
Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday demanded the use of ballot paper in polls instead of EVMs. Yadav said that the BJP will lose elections if held through ballot papers and the Samajwadi Party will win by a huge majority.
"Remove EVM and make Samajwadi Party form government again. If a country like America is using ballots...," he said while addressing the media in Lucknow.
Akhilesh said that the Samajwadi Party workers will give a reply to the BJP by spreading awareness among the public. He made an appeal to the voters to support the SP in its fight to save democracy.
"The BJP is trying to snatch all the rights accorded to the public," he said.
This is not the first time when Akhilesh has put forth such a demand. The former Uttar Pradesh CM and other Opposition leaders on many occasions said that no one trusts EVMs and that the polls should be conducted on ballot papers. They have alleged that whenever voters press EVM buttons, the LED lamp of the BJP is flashed, a charge categorically refuted by the Election Commission of India.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh also lashed out at the BJP over rising fuel prices and inflation. He said that people are angry with the BJP and that the party will bite the dust in the next year's polls.
He also slammed the Yogi Adityanath government over the Kanpur businessman death case, and charged that 'someone' is saving himself and there is an extortion racket linked to the matter.
Businessman Manish Gupta died in a Gorakhpur hotel during a police raid late on Monday night, prompting the authorities to suspend six policemen and book them on the charge of murder. Gupta was staying with two friends in the hotel.
"Zero tolerance' is also a BJP jumla (rhetoric)," he said, in an apparent reference to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's assertion that the state has zero tolerance towards crime and corruption.
