BJP hijacked election by EVMs, says Mayawati

BSP supremo Mayawati on Thursday accused the BJP of hijacking the electoral process with electronic voting machines and said the faith of people in EVMs will further erode after Thursday's results.

"The BJP hijacked the electoral process by EVMs. The whole country was opposing EVMs and after today's results, the remaining faith of the public will also vanish."

She also alleged that the seats won by the BSP-SP-RLD alliance were deliberately not tampered with to create an impression that there was no manipulation of the EVMs.

"We were not expecting such a bad performance from the Mahagathbandhan. The seats where we have won were deliberately not manipulated in order to fool the public," said Mayawati.

The result of this election will further strengthen the people's resolve to fight a capitalist and status quoist government, she said.

"All the institutions of the nation are kneeling before the authoritarian government and in such a situation people have to stand up to fight for their rights," said Mayawati.

Commending the hard work put in by the SP-BSP workers in the election, Mayawati said, "There is no doubt that crores of hardworking people fought against the BJP and Modi's anti-people government."

Urging the Supreme Court and the Election Commission to return to the ballot paper system, Mayawati said, "The Supreme Court should seriously think about conducting elections through ballot paper."

In Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati's BSP is leading on 10 seats while Samajwadi Party is leading on only five Lok Sabha seats.

On the other hand, in a spectacular performance, the BJP is leading on 62 of the 80 parliamentary constituencies.