Uttar Pradesh police have arrested a current and a former Samajwadi Party official and booked over 700 workers of the party, under sections including attempt to murder, for keeping vigil outside strong-rooms where EVMs were stored before counting.
About two dozen workers have been named in the FIRs while the rest remain unnamed.
Hundreds of Samajwadi workers had gathered at the gates of the strong-rooms — mostly government warehouses — on March 9, the day before counting. They stopped and tried to search all the arriving vehicles.
Party leaders had earlier alleged that some government officials might bring into the strong-rooms doctored EVMs that had not been used in the polling but contained votes for the BJP.
One of the cases was registered in Basti town on Wednesday evening against 100 Samajwadi workers, of whom about a dozen were named.
“They illegally stopped the cars of officials, including some election observers,” Basti superintendent of police Ashish Srivastava said.
“We have registered seven cases against them under several penal sections, including attempt to murder and preventing officers from doing their duty.”
Asked why attempt-to-murder charges had been slapped, he said the Samajwadi workers had chased some officials menacingly.
Mahendra Nath Yadav, the Samajwadi candidate from Basti Sadar who defeated the BJP’s Dayaram Chaudhary by just 1,779 votes, denied the charge.
“I could win only because we were vigilant. We knew some people were trying to play mischief and acted in time,” he said.
“We were 100 metres from the strong-rooms but still the police have booked us. They are raiding the homes of Samajwadi workers.”
Hardoi police arrested Sanjay Kashyap, former general secretary of the Samajwadi backward classes cell, and Parivesh Srivastava, state secretary of the Mulayam Youth Brigade, on Wednesday on the charge of misbehaving with the sub-divisional magistrate at the gate of the strong-room.
Kashyap, who joined BJP ally Nishad Party on Monday, said: “We were checking every vehicle but didn’t misbehave with anyone.”
Hardoi superintendent of police Rajesh Dwivedi said: “We have booked six named and 30 unidentified Samajwadi workers, and arrested two for obstructing election-related work.”
Samajwadi candidate Anil Verma lost to the BJP’s Nitin Agrawal from Hardoi by 42,411 votes.
Some 400 Samajwadi workers, half a dozen of them named, have been booked in Kaushambi under charges such as the use of criminal force and rioting.
They were working for Samajwadi candidate Pallavi Patel, who defeated the BJP’s Keshav Prasad Maurya by 7,337 votes from Sirathu.
Samajwadi spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary accused the state government of intimidation. “We all know that EVMs and postal ballots were found in government vehicles. Instead of explaining this, the BJP government is trying to punish us for being upright,” he said.
On March 9, Samajwadi workers in Varanasi had stopped two trucks that were carrying EVMs. The Election Commission later said these EVMs were meant for training personnel and had not been used in the polling.