An army of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party ‘chowkidars’ has been keeping a round-the-clock vigil on all strong rooms in 75 districts across Uttar Pradesh. 

“We have already directed party leaders in each district to  deploy workers to keep a vigil on the strong rooms in each district,’’ SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said in Lucknow on Wednesday.

The army of ‘chowkidars’ includes workers and supporters of SP and BSP. Chaudhary said that the party decided to deploy its workers outside strong rooms as the opposition parties had no faith in the Election Commission and BJP government.

“The opposition parties decided to step up vigil on strong rooms in the aftermath of videos circulating on social media showing alleged movement and tampering of EVMs in Ghazipur, Chandauli, Mau, and Jhansi districts,” the SP spokeman said.

Some supporters are even residing in makeshift tents and guarding the strong rooms in eight-hour shifts.

“The workers have been have assigned different roles like keeping a tab on CCTV feed from outside the strong rooms on their monitors, watching activities near or inside the premises through binoculars or going near barricades from time to time using the passes issued for the purpose,” said the SP leader.

However, UP’s chief electoral officer Venkateshwar Lu allayed the fears of EVM tampering. “There are CCTV cameras installed in strong rooms and candidates are allowed to keep a watch through their representatives. All the apprehensions are unfounded,” he insisted.