Rohaniya: BJP, Apna Dal allege EVM tampering, demand re-election

The BJP’s only ally in the state, Apna Dal, had fielded its national president, Krishna Patel — who polled in 61,672 votes, losing by a margin of 14,449 votes — as its candidate. Krishna is mother of Anupriya Patel, the national general secretary of Apna Dal.

Anupriya was the sitting MLA from Rohaniya that fell vacant after she was elected as Mirzapur MP in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.

Varanasi being part of Modi’s constituency, the BJP had left no stone unturned in supporting the AD candidate. Besides, local BJP MLAs, MPs and the state president, star BJP campaigner Yogi Adityanath too had campaigned for Krishna Patel. Central ministers, Kalraj Mishra and Manoj Sinha, were also roped in for the campaign.

BJP’s regional president (Kashi Prant) Laxman Acharya said: “We are not accepting the results. There has been widespread malpractices, misuse of official machinery and tampering with the EVMs. We are demanding re-election and have written letters to the Election Commission in this regard.

Our agents were forced to step outside and the entire counting process was one-sided. We, along with the Apna Dal leaders, are sitting here in protest.”
Congress’ district president Praja Nath Sharma said: “After nearly 10 rounds, I left the place because of illness. But I came to know about the anomalies by the 12th round. Immediately, I got in touch with our men and asked the candidate, Bhawna Patel (3,270 votes), to protest against the same. We are demanding re-election. This election has been rigged.”

Independent candidate Ramakant Singh alias Mintu, who polled over 30,000 votes, too joined the dharna.

According to the complaint, the agents found out that many EVMs between round 11 and 14 had several anomalies. These included: Missing of seals on EVMs, the boxes of the EVMs found already open and missing tags.

BJP leaders also alleged that in the earlier rounds too, minor anomalies were detected. However, they did not take it too seriously. But between the 11th and 14th rounds, the number of such EVMs increased rapidly.

Krishna was trailing by over 7,000 votes by the 14th round from her nearest rival, SP’s Mahendra Singh Patel (who polled 76,121 votes), younger brother of state minister Surendra Singh Patel, had begun taking lead by the 5th round.

“We detected anomalies in 11th round, which was less than the halfway mark. So, it cannot be said we raised the issue only when defeat appeared imminent,” said BJP spokesperson Sanjay Bhardwaj.

Additional District Magistrate (Elections) Ajay Kumar Awasthi said: “The complaint made by BJP-AD leaders was vague in the sense that they did not specifically mention the EVM numbers and the total number of such machines, where the seals and tags were allegedly missing. Nevertheless, the Observer and the RO got things checked and only one EVM was found with some problem. They were satisfied that the other three seals and tags inside were intact. Therefore, the matter has been sorted out at their level. The counting did not stop.”

DM (Varanasi) Pranjal Yadav was out of station. SP district president Satish Yadav alias Fauji ribbisehd the allegations.