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Updated April 29th, 2019 at 16:25 IST

Kannauj: SP alleges VVPAT shows 'lotus' when 'cycle' button pressed; wants DGP removed

An average 49.02 percent voter turnout was recorded till 3 pm across six Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh Monday

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Opposition Samajwadi Party on Monday urged the Election Commission to remove Uttar Pradesh's police chief OP Singh from the post alleging he was "favouring" the ruling BJP and affecting elections.

The party also alleged that in at at least two polling booths the Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machine showed the voting for the BJP when the ballot was cast for the SP.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimpal is contesting from the constituency.

Party leader Dharmendra Yadav said the Director General of Police was "misusing" government machinery to help the BJP.

"We demanded from the EC to remove him immediately," Yadav told reporters here.

He was part of a SP delegation that met Chief Electoral Officer L Venkatenshwar Lu and submitted a memorandum demanding the immediate removal of the DGP. It highlighted the issue of "faulty" EVMs.

"The police are terrorizing minority voters. The force is being misused in favour of the BJP. We have apprised the CEO about it," SP spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury said.

The memorandum highlighted specific details about booths in Kannauj where EVMs are allegedly malfunctioning.

In booth number 482 and 483, the party claimed, that VVPAT showed lotus (BJP poll symbol) slip, after pressing cycle (SP poll symbol) button.

Chowdhury alleged that a police inspector in Kannauj was working as a "BJP agent".

The SP delegation requested the CEO to look into the matter to ensure free and fair polls.

"We have received a memorandum of the SP. We will look into it," a senior EC official said.

With the political discourse widening, as popular faces from varied fields entering the political stream to full-fledged campaigning underway across the country, India has moved into its fourth phase of polling in 72 parliamentary constituencies spread across nine states.

The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 56 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (six) and the Biju Janata Dal (six).

With 9 states, 72 seats and 961 candidates in the fray, the states that are going to polls are-

Voting will take place in 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and a part of the Anantnag constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.

Election in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP had cornered all but two of the total 54 seats in 2014, will begin in this phase. The Congress appeared to make a comeback, forming the governments in the states after last year's Assembly polls.

 

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Published April 29th, 2019 at 15:38 IST

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