A mini truck carrying EVMs was intercepted by Samajwadi Party (SP) workers near a strong room in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. The workers are accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being involved in transporting the EVMs from the strong room.
Video clips of EVMs loaded in a mini truck surfaced online on Tuesday, leading the Jaunpur district magistrate (DM) to rush to the scene.
According to the district collector, “The EVMs are reserve machines and were not used in the election. They were mistakenly taken out of the strong room. However, SP workers claim that the official failed to provide any documentary evidence to support this explanation.”
The incident occurred shortly after the sixth phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, May 25. SP workers noticed the mini truck carrying the EVMs and demanded an explanation from the authorities.
“We caught a vehicle transporting the EVMs outside the strong room,” told Jaunpur SP candidate Babu Singh Kushwaha to the local media. He added that the driver of the car fled when confronted by people and police officers at the scene.
Kushwaha also mentioned that the DM failed to provide any documentary evidence to support the claim that the EVMs were mistakenly taken out of the strong room.
Initially, the SP workers were not convinced and accused the BJP of attempting to tamper with the EVMs.
Disctrict Collector Jaunpur, however, provided clarification regarding the incident on X (previously Twitter), stating that the Tehsildar Machhlishahr was driving back from Purvanchal University Road with a vehicle in order to deposit the reserve EVM machines that were not yet in use for the Mungarabadshahpur Assembly constituency in the Collectorate’s EVM warehouse. He took the car to the university campus to get police security because of the heavy traffic, which the SP candidate and his supporters objected to.
In response, the Tehsildar gave them the reserve EVM machine list, which was the same list that had been previously given to him. The EVM devices were then placed in the warehouse after the truck containing the reserve EVMs was dispatched to the Collectorate. In front of the SP candidate, the entire procedure was finished.
The DM also mentioned that the matter was investigated in the presence of SP candidate Babu Singh Kushwaha, who is now satisfied with the investigation.
