Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: As initial trends showed that the Congress is leading in all three states undergoing counting of votes on Thursday, BJP levelled a serious allegation of poll fraud against the Grand Old Party of India.
“EVMs have become ‘electronic victory machines’ for the Congress,” BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters from the party headquarter here. He is also the BJP election in-charge for assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh.
He said he had got reports from many constituencies in Maharashtra and Haryana of hundreds of votes being polled with an hour. “That is impossible as it would mean many votes were cast in a single minute on one machine,” he added.
Naqvi said these elections were conducted with EVMs
despite many parties expressing concern over their
functioning.
Reacting to the charge, Congress said BJP was a bad loser and had nothing else to say in the face of defeat.
When asked if EVMs were manipulated in the past in states like Chhattisgarh and Gujarat where the BJP had won, Naqvi said, "Don't look at the results but at the credibility of EVMs."
However, soon after he retracted on his statement, ostensibly after being pressurized by the party higher-ups.
"I would request you not to look at these assembly elections from the point of view of EVMs alone. Once all the results are announced, we will analyse the reasons for the party's performance," Naqvi said.
When asked if he was backtracking on the issue under pressure, Naqvi said, "We will take up the issue of EVMs with the Election Commission. The technical question is still there."
Meanwhile in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena-BJP combine on Thursday conceded defeat in the Assembly elections with state party chief Gopinath Munde accepting the result.
"If it is a defeat, it has to be accepted by everybody," Shiv Sena leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi said when asked if the party conceded defeat in the elections.
"We are thinking as to how these results have come.. We never expected these results," he added.
Initial trends showed that the ruling Congress-NCP combine leading in 119 seats, while Shiv Sena-BJP combine ahead in 92 seats.
Asked about the reasons behind the performance of the combine in the state, BJP state president Nitin Gadkari said, "If there is a defeat, it is a defeat of everybody. If it is a victory, it is everybody's victory. I don't want to blame anybody for the defeat."