Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday pledged to remove electronic voting machines (EVMs) if his party was voted to power in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Claiming that nobody had faith in EVMs, Yadav said that even the US conducted the election using paper ballots. At the same time, he stressed that it was unwise to campaign against EVMs at this juncture.
Yadav said, "I am saying this even today. Nobody trusts EVMs. In America, elections were held and the counting went on for many days. People will regain trust only through ballots. But this battle cannot be fought now. That's why we want to ensure that at least all the Samajwadi Party workers cast their vote. If all of them cast their vote, the BJP will be defeated automatically. And after forming the government, the Samajwadi Party will remove the EVMs first."
The SP chief, who was in Jhansi on Thursday, said that the focus for the 2022 UP assembly elections would remain on ensuring that SP wins the polls.
In the 403-member UP assembly, 312 MLAs belong to BJP while SP has only 49 members.
