Accusing the Chief Minister’s Office of trying to influence the process of counting of votes, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav said that the elections are the last battle of democracy and there is a need to stand up to save democracy.

“I have definite information that the Chief Minister's Principal Secretary has asked all district officials to slow down the counting of votes where the BJP is losing,” Akhilesh told mediapersons in Lucknow Tuesday and even named the District Magistrate of Varanasi playing mischief.

The SP chief even said that EVMs were taken away by the officials on the direction of their political masters. “One vehicle carrying EVMs was apprehended in Varanasi, while two vehicles sped away. The needle of suspicion points towards the DM of Varanasi as to why no action was taken against the persons who removed the EVMs from the custody,” he said.

Akhilesh further said, “Also three boxes were seized carrying EVM machines and over 500 ballot papers were seized from a garbage disposal vehicle (UP 25 DT 9166) in Bareilly. The people who caught the vehicle informed Ghoraval's SDM but the official took no action. So, it shows that officials are working on the directions of the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.”

The Samajwadi Party chief appealed to party workers to stage a dharna outside strong rooms where EVMs are kept. “Now the EVMs have to be protected for the next two days. Stage a sit on outside the strong rooms as farmers staged dharna in UP-Delhi border. Save your vote if you have voted for Samajwadi Party as everyone will have to come forward to save democracy,” he said.

Earlier, the Samajwadi Party had demanded that jammers be installed outside counting centres so that no one could hack the EVMs. “The BJP can go to any extent to win the UP polls. They can use technology available under the sky to manipulate EVMs. Therefore, our demand is to install jammers so that hacking (of EVMs) could be prevented,” the SP chief said.