Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday decided to formally approach the Election Commission of India (ECI) with a complaint of large-scale EVM tampering by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently concluded Nuapada Assembly by-election, which the BJP won.
The decision was taken at the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting held under the chairmanship of party president Naveen Patnaik. Senior leader and Opposition Chief Whip Pramila Mallik told reporters after the meeting, “We have discussed the Nuapada bypoll issues with the party president at the PAC meeting. We have decided to move the Election Commission of India over the BJD votes being captured by the BJP to win the by-election. The BJP won the poll by capturing the votes of BJD through EVM tampering, use of money, muscle and mechanism in Nuapada.”
Mallik added that the party had earlier met the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Odisha, just before the declaration of results and submitted complaints regarding EVM tampering. “We will also conduct our own inquiry, expose the EVM tampering and make the people aware about the BJP’s effort to kill democracy,” she said.
The BJD also decided to take all measures to strengthen its frontal wings at the grassroots level.In the same meeting, the party finalised its strategy to corner the Mohan Majhi government during the upcoming winter session of the Odisha Assembly by raising all public issues aggressively.
