UP civic polls: SEC 'punctures' candidate's claim of zero vote

Lucknow: The state election commission in Uttar Pradesh on Monday strongly refuted an independent candidate's accusations about rigged EVMs used in the just concluded civic body polls. Independent candidate from Saharanpur, Shabana, who triggered a storm by claiming that she got zero vote despite casting a vote for herself, has been slammed by the poll panel for alleging that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were "manipulated". An official of the poll panel on Monday said that the charge was "not only baseless but also mischievous as records show clearly that Shabana polled 87 votes". Claims by Shabana had gone viral on the social media and were tweeted by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) as proof to back their claims that EVMs had been "tampered with" to help the ruling BJP in the civic polls. Shabana's husband, Ikram, had initially claimed that there were 11 booths and that the family had voted in booth 388. But the family alleged that there were no votes for her when votes were counted. Shabana contested from ward no 54 and told the media that EVM tampering had been proved by the fact that she herself did not get her own vote. In the polls where the Bharatiya Janata Party captured power in 14 of the 16 municipal corporations, the opposition parties have been alleging that the official machinery was misused and the EVMs tampered with to favour the ruling party. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and social activist Prashant Bhushan had cited the case of Shabana in their tweets questioning the electoral process in the urban body polls.