When Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav blamed the EVM for the party’s defeat in the just concluded Urban Local Bodies elections, his ‘uncle’ and party’s MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav said that weak party organisation was behind poor show in the election.
“There is no proof about tampering of the EVMs and people were making wild allegations. Even if the EVMs were tampered with, the Samajwadi Party would not have won elections. Allegations of EVM tampering during Assembly elections were also false,” he told reporters in Mainpuri on Thursday.
Yadav, who had gone to Mainpuri to attend a function, said that people are talking about tampering of the EVMs but are unable to produce any evidence, obliquely referring to Akhilesh. “If there was any tampering in the EVMs during Assembly elections, how did I win from Jaswantnagar seat by a huge margin defeating the BJP candidate,” he asked.
Shivpal’s statement contradicts the laims of the SP president that EVMs were tampered to favour the BJP during the Assembly and recently held Mayoral elections. Akhilesh had even demanded holding of future elections through traditional ballot papers. Talking about the recently held ULB elections, Shivpal Yadav said that had the party given him responsibility of the civic poll, the party would have won majority of the seats. “You can get a proof that all those candidates won, where I had campaigned and supported them,” he said while holding the party leadership responsible for the defeat. Though maintaining that civic poll was not a semi-final before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shivpal said that the party leadership should review why they fielded weak candidates in the recent polls.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Thursday, Shivpal attacked the Yogi Government saying that the BJP Government in UP has destroyed the co-operative
culture.