Armed with binoculars, a supply of food, how SP-BSP men are guarding EVM strong rooms

MEERUT: Amid talks of EVM rigging surfacing from some quarters of UP, an army of EVM ‘chowkidars’ consisting UP alliance workers and supporters is stationed outside all the strong rooms of the state and is keeping a 24x7 eye on every movement around it.
In one such camp in Meerut, the atmosphere is little tense, but jokes cracked by some of them about Narendra Modi coming to power again are keeping the atmosphere light.
Two tents have been erected, and the supporters are guarding the strong room in three shifts of eight hours each outside Katai Mill in Meerut’s Partapur area. One of them keeps a binocular handy to keep a close eye on every movement at the strong room.
“We set up our camp on the evening of April 11, hours after polling ended. Since then, we have been here on the vigil in three shifts of eight hours each,” says Subash Pradhan, BSP district president in Meerut.
“The main group comprises of 18 Mahagathbandhan supporters from all the three parties. They have been issued passes and can go up to barricading close to the EVM strong room,” Pradhan said.
The main tent is equipped with mattress laid out on a raised platform, which is doubling up as bed for people willing to rest. A king size cooler has been keeping the temperature bearable amid heated discussions over outcome of exit polls.
Some of these supporters are deployed to continuously watch CCTV feed from outside EVM strong room on two monitors installed in another tent. Supporters also use binoculars to monitor activity inside the premises and suspicious movements are reported to senior party leaders who immediately follow up with the local election officials.
“The tent is approximately 200m away from the strong room. Binoculars make it easier for us to keep a close watch on activities inside and the night vision ensures the monitoring after dawn as well,” Shera Jaat, a Samajwadi Party supporter said.
“Recently we spotted two people trying to scale the strong room. We immediately informed the local administration. They claimed that the unidentified people were there for some repair works,” he said.
Several allegations of EVM fraud and manipulation are coming from several districts of UP including Jhansi, Mirzapur, Ghazipur and Chandauli.
Social media is also afoot with videos where EVMs purportedly can be seen being transported in open vehicles.
Election Commission, in an official release, rubbished the allegations.
“Certain complaints of alleged movement of EVMs, purportedly to replace the polled EVMs in the strong rooms, have been doing the rounds in sections of media. Election Commission would like to emphatically and unambiguously clarify that all such reports and allegations are absolutely false, and factually incorrect,” ECI said in the release.