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Akhilesh Yadav echoes Mayawati’s EVM tampering suspicions, says ‘In democracy, sometimes people vote on misinformation’

“If people have not liked Expressway, they might like the Bullet train,” Akhilesh Yadav said.

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"If people have not liked Expressway, they might like the Bullet train," Akhilesh Yadav said. (PTI)

Echoing Mayawati, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said he will analyse the allegations of EVM tampering made by the BSP supremo, and then make a statement over it. Akhilesh further said that people sometimes go with ‘misrepresentation of facts and on proper information’. “If people have not liked Expressway, they might like the Bullet train,” Akhilesh Yadav said. Conceding the defeat, Akhilesh said that he accepts people’s mandate. On his ‘kaam bolta hai'(Work speaks for itself) catchphrase, Akhilesh said that his work will continue to speak till someone else performs better on ground. “Our cycle was a tubeless cycle. In politics, you can never say what happens… until someone does work better than us, our work will speak,” says Akhilesh Yadav said addressing the media at his residence in Lucknow.  While being asked if takes responsibility of defeat, Akhilesh said: “I will take responsibility about the defeat only after deliberating on it.”

Earlier, speaking to media, BSP supremo Mayawati had alleged that EVMs used in the assembly elections may not have accepted any votes accept the ones in favour of Bharatiya Janata Party. Addressing media, Mayawati questioned how votes in Muslim-dominated areas went in favour of BJP. Mayawati’s statement came just after her party suffered shocking defeat in state Assembly polls. “I have written to Election Commission in this regard, people no more have faith in EVM machines,” Mayawati said. “Most votes in Muslim majority constituencies have gone to BJP, makes it evident that voting machines were manipulated,” she added. “Either the EVMs did not accept votes other than BJP, or the votes of other parties have gone to BJP in the EVMs,” said BSP supremo.

Election Results 2017: Indian Express Editors’ In-Depth Analysis On Poll Outcome

Mayawati said this trend will have a “very bad bearing” on democracy in the country and will amount to crushing it. “The results in UP and Uttarakhand are surprising and not palatable to anyone…it seems EVMs did not accept votes polled for any party other than BJP,” she said. “It is a matter of common discussion here that even if button is pressed for any other party, vote will be polled in favour of BJP,” Mayawati said. The BSP chief claimed that a similar complaint was made by her partymen in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but she had preferred to stay silent thinking it was Modi wave and anti-Congress sentiment.

In a sweeping victory, Amit Shah-led Bharatiya Janat Party won more than 300 seats in Uttar Pradesh. While the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party-Congress coalition won close to 60 seats, putting it in the second spot in the state. Senior BJP leader and state unit president Keshav Prasad Maurya credited the victory to joint efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah.

BSP, which has been completely rejected by people, fell from 80 seats to 19 seats in the elections. However, as per the Election Commission of India, BJP has secured 40 per cent vote share, BSP has bagged 22 per cent, while SP has also managed to get around 22 per cent seats.

 

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First published on: 11-03-2017 at 17:42 IST