SP will win 2022 UP polls, will work towards abolishing EVMs: Akhilesh

Jhansi: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Thursday that his party will win the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections "by a huge majority" after which 'Samajwadi people' will work towards abolishing electronic voting machines (EVMs). The SP chief cited last year’s US presidential elections, which happened on ballot paper, to claim that nobody trusts EVMs anymore.

"On EVMs, I still say that no one trusts them. Recently in the USA, the polls were conducted on ballot papers, and counting took several days. People trust only ballot papers, but this fight cannot be fought right now," he said at a press conference.

Yadav also talked about the Bihar elections stating that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Congress-Left grand alliance was going to win but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not let that happen, stating that things won’t work like that in UP where his party is confident of winning the elections with a huge majority.

"In UP, the situation will not be like Bihar assembly polls. In Bihar, the grand alliance government was going to be formed, but BJP did not let it happen. In UP, the BJP will taste defeat by a huge margin. The SP will win 350 seats (of a total 403 seats)," Yadav said at the press conference held in Jhansi.

Yadav launched a similar attack against EVMs during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections citing news clippings on malfunctioning of EVMs. He alleged that EVMs were "malfunctioning or voting for the BJP" across the country, adding that poll officers are untrained to operate the machines.

“EVMs across India malfunctioning or voting for the BJP. DMs say poll officials untrained to operate EVMs. 350+ being replaced. This is criminal negligence for a polling exercise that costs 50,000 crs,” Yadav had tweeted on April 23, 2019.