Rajbhar claims 'manipulation of EVMs' led to UP poll debacle

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 13 : Suheldev Bahujan Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar on Saturday claimed that manipulation of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) led to the loss of Samajwadi Party and its alliance partners in the just-concluded elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to ANI, Rajbhar, an OBC leader from eastern UP, said, "The Samajwadi Party and SBSP alliance lost because of the hacking of EVMs besides Mayawati's BSP and Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM. The BSP and AIMIM fielded candidates of the same caste and communities as fielded by the SP and its alliance partners. The SP has a stronghold amongst Muslims and Yadavs. In eastern UP districts like Ghazipur and Varanasi, the BSP and the AIMIM fielded Yadav and Muslim candidates against the SP candidates, which split votes of the Opposition parties, ensuring BJP's triumph."
He added, "The counting of votes took place almost six times in certain constituencies where the BJP was trailing in the initial phases. After six rounds of counting, once the BJP candidates came in the leads, the counting was stopped. The BJP had deputed entire state machinery in the elections."
The SBSP chief said, "Mayawati and Owaisi helped in creating buzz for the BJP. If these factors were not there, the SP alliance would have won over 300 seats in the state."