Samajwadi Party delegation meets UP CEO, alleges anomalies in polling

A four-member delegation of Samajwadi Party (SP) led by a senior party functionary Rajendra Chaudhary met state's Chief Election Officer (CEO) L Venkateshwar Lu to complaint against alleged anomalies in polling in Uttar Pradesh.

After meeting the CEO, Chaudhary told ANI, "On the direction of party president Akhilesh Yadav we met the state's chief polling officer. We have given a written complaint to the CEO that there are wide-scale fraud happening at all 10 Lok Sabha seats where elections are taking place today. EVM machines in various booths are malfunctioning. This time also it is the same error that if someone votes for SP, the vote goes to BJP."

Accusing BJP of misusing government machinery, Chaudhary said: "The ruling party is misusing the government machinery and its leaders are trying to influence elections. We have given CEO even the details of the booths where the EVMs are malfunctioning. He has assured us that he will immediately look into it and do the needful."

Earlier in the day, BJP workers had allegedly beaten up an election official at booth number 231 in Moradabad Lok Sabha constituency.

The BJP workers alleged that the officer, Mohammad Zubair, was asking voters to press the cycle symbol of SP.

Lok Sabha elections began in 39 constituencies across eight states in the north and Northeast India at 7 am today, in the third phase of the General elections 2019.

Polling is taking place in five seats of Bihar, four seats in Assam, six seats in Odisha, 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, seven seats in Chhattisgarh, five seats in West Bengal, and one seat each in Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura.