Maya claims Dalits were ‘prevented’ from voting

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, April 12

BSP national president Mayawati today accused the Uttar Pradesh administration of preventing Dalits from casting their vote in the first phase of elections on Thursday. She also alleged EVM malfunctioning at several places.

Describing these developments as the “murder of democracy”, she demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) addressed the issues. She claimed the administration had used force to prevent Dalits from reaching their polling booths. Also, there were instances of votes being cast for the ‘elephant’, but the VVPAT displaying the ‘lotus’. This , she claimed, had occurred at booth No 16 of Kasauli in the Bijnore Lok Sabha constituency. She said even the BSP polling agent’s vote went to the BJP despite him pressing the BSP button. The polling agent complained to the booth officers, who admitted that the machine was faulty, the BSP leader said.

“Worse, the police used batons and reportedly fired into the air to scare away Dalit voters. Despite these incidents being promptly reported to the district officers no action was taken,” she alleged.

Mayawati said BSP general secretary Satish Misra immediately spoke to Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha and Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Prakash as well as DGP OP Singh on the “environment of fear created by the police.”

She said unless the ECI took immediate action, the elections would be meaningless.

Cong moves EC over PM speech, faulty EVMs 

• A Congress delegation on Friday petitioned the EC on a range of issues, including reports of EVM malfunctioning during the first phase, telecast of a web serial on PM Modi, alleged hate speeches by BJP top brass and ‘false’ affidavit by minister Smriti Irani
• Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Abhishek Singhvi and Shaktisinh Gohil met the Chief Election Commissioner with a memorandum and demanded immediate action on the ‘electoral malpractices’ by the BJP