Samajwadi Party on Monday urged the Election Commission to remove Uttar Pardesh’s police chief OP Singh from his post, alleging that he was “favouring” the ruling BJP and affecting elections.

They alleged that there was a discrepancy between the votes cast on the EVM and what was shown as on the Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machine (VVAPT). They said that in at least two polling booths, the VVAPT showed a vote was cast for the BJP even though the ballot was cast for the SP.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimpal is contesting from the constituency.

Party leader Dharmendra Yadav said that the Director General of Police was “misusing” government machinery to help the BJP. “We demanded from the EC to remove him immediately,” Yadav told reporters here.

He was part of a SP delegation that met Chief Electoral Officer L Venkatenshwarlu and submitted a memorandum demanding immediate removal of the DGP. It highlighted the issue of “faulty” EVMs.

“The police are terrorising minority voters. The force is being misused in favour of the BJP. We have apprised the CEO about it,” SP spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury said.

The memorandum highlighted specific details about booths in Kannauj where EVMs are allegedly malfunctioning. In booth number 482 and 483, the party claimed, that VVPAT showed lotus (the BJP’s poll symbol) slip, after pressing cycle (the SP’s poll symbol) button.

Chowdhury alleged that a police inspector in Kannauj was working as a “BJP agent”. The SP delegation requested the CEO to look into the matter to ensure free and fair polls. “We have received memorandum of the SP. We will look into it,” a senior EC official said.

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