Parliament Session 2024: Akhilesh Yadav won’t trust EVM if Samajwadi Party wins…

Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav said in the parliament session on Tuesday, that he will never trust Electronic Voting Machines(EVMs) even if he won the total of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Kannauj’s MP Yadav said that he had never trusted the EVMs, and the issue still continues to plague India’s election process, with its democracy at stake.“Neither did I trust it(EVM) yesterday, nor do I trust it today. The issue of EVM’s has not died,” Akhilesh Yadav said at the parliament.

Doing away with EVM’s would lead to India’s democracy functioning at optimum, and also make India prominent at the global level, elaborated Akhilesh Yadav. “If the Election Commission is unbiased, not only would it make our democracy a healthy one, but also strengthen at the global level,”said the SP chief.

Yadav further went on to say that he did not wish to doubt the Election Commission as it functions as an independent body, but concerns still prevail. “When the Model Code of Conduct came into force, I observed that the current government, and the EC have been benevolent on a lot of people,” said Akhilesh Yadav.

Akhilesh Yadav’s objection to the electronic voting machines has been a long duel, ever since he contested for the Lok Sabha elections 2024, from UP’s Kannauj district. Earlier, in April, Yadav had said that his fight against EVMs would not stop despite the Supreme Court’s rejection of 100 per cent cross-verification of EVMs with the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs), reported the ANI.

“There is a long fight ahead on VVPAT, EVM , and ballot paper. Whatever decision the Supreme Court takes, everybody will accept that, but the fight won’t stop. The fight will go on,” said Akhilesh Yadav to ANI.

Several developed countries across the world including Netherlands, the US have banned the use of EVMs. The SP chief backed his cause by citing Germany’s example, which does not have EVMs. Yadav further called the EVMs “unconstituitonal,” according to ANI.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress contested on 17 seats, while the Samajwadi Party on the remaining 63 seats, according to their pact under the INDIA coalition. Collectively, the INDIA bloc won a majority of 43 seats, while Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party garnered 33.