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Journalism of Courage
If the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) has announced its support to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, at least one of its MLAs, Uttam Jankar, has gone one step further. He says he has reached out to the AAP to apprise it of the ways in which EVMs can be “manipulated”, ahead of the polling – and counting – for the Delhi Assembly elections.
Jankar believes he is the right person to do so. While the NCP (SP) leader had won from the Malshiras constituency in the Maharashtra Assembly polls in November last year, voters in Markarwadi village falling under the seat had announced a “repoll” by ballot paper, raising questions over Jankar’s BJP rival leading from there in the Assembly polls. Following threat of action by the authorities and the imposition of prohibitory orders, the “repoll” had been cancelled. Jankar was one of the 89 people booked for allegedly violating the prohibitory orders.
Jankar, who was in Delhi last week and met AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, told The Indian Express that he will be meeting AAP booth-level leaders soon to apprise them of possible ways the BJP can “tamper with” EVMs.
“We had planned a protest at Jantar Mantar over the EVM discrepancies too, but it was called off due to security restrictions for Republic Day. I will meet AAP leaders and tell them how the BJP manipulates EVMs,” Jankar said.
Sources said a protest along with AAP leaders was still on the cards and may be held after January 31. The campaigning for the February 5 Delhi elections ends on February 3.
Jankar said that given the shortage of time, “there is a possibility that the meeting with AAP booth-level leaders may be held virtually, as it would be easier”.
Sanjay Singh confirmed meeting the NCP (SP) MLA but said he was unaware about Jankar’s possible meeting with booth-level leaders.
Highly placed sources in the AAP added that the party had for its part roped in young engineers to keep an eye out on voting day. “On February 5, the team will monitor voting as we have information that the authorities, including the police, may try to slow down the voting process,” a source said.
As per sources, other youths affiliated to the AAP in areas where the party is strong could be trained in the use of “sting devices” to record any incidents of “police or administrative high-handedness”.
Asked about Jankar’s remarks, the NCP (SP) was guarded, with the chief party spokesperson Mahesh Tapase only saying they were “strategically supporting” the AAP. “We want to defeat the BJP. With this in mind, we are supporting the AAP strategically as among the non-BJP parties in the fray in Delhi, it has the highest chance of coming to power,” he said.
Advocating better coordination between non-BJP parties, Tapase said his party may also extend “support to the Congress on strategic seats” if the need arises.
The Congress and AAP failed to reach a deal for the Assembly elections in Delhi and, apart from the NCP (SP), other INDIA partners such as the Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress have also extended their support to Kejriwal.
While in Delhi, Jankar said he had presented an affidavit to the Election Commission (EC) with self-attested voter ID card copies of “2,500 voters” of his constituency, seeking a “thorough probe” into the alleged poll discrepancies in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. “In the coming days, we will submit over 1.75 lakh voter IDs with our demand.”
The AAP, incidentally, has also been consistently alleging discrepancies in the run-up to the Delhi polls, and approached the Election Commission recently claiming the BJP was facilitating deletion of its supporters from electoral rolls. AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal claimed such “mass deletion” of voters in his own New Delhi seat.
