Losing candidate can be declared winner: Rakesh Tikait's alert for UP Assembly Elections counting day

Rakesh tikait
Image: PTI

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait who has been at the forefront of mobilising the agrarian community to come together as a strong vote bank in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, has raised an alert on a possibility of disturbances in the counting of votes on March 10. “This is a university that can pass a failure, it can declare a losing candidate the winner, this has happened in the zila parishad elections,” said Tikait

In his trademark style he further said that he will ask the farmers to gather and “bring your tractor and bring dinner and breakfast too, get your sheets too,” in order to keep an eye on things when the counting was on. “Government officials’ votes have been cast by the government itself,” he said, adding that he does not know if change is imminent but he does know that people are upset. His alert on a “possibility of error in counting of votes”, is serious and the first of its kind said in the open by a leader.

Rakesh Tikait reached the Naveen Mandi of Muzaffarnagar on Sunday where he met the media too. Tikait told the media that the farmers will get “slips in two days” and “electricity will also be fine” but the farmers should also keep “an eye” from afar on the counting as well.

“EVM पर निगरानी के लिए दो दिन की छुट्टी रखें किसान, वोटों की गिनती में हो सकती है गड़बड़ी” : @RakeshTikaitBKU #UPElection2022 pic.twitter.com/DatWYpAIM4
— News24 (@news24tvchannel) March 7, 2022

The farmers’ umbrella body Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) had concluded its Mission Uttar Pradesh on March 2, 2022 in Varanasi where its leaders asked the people yet again to “punish the anti-farmer BJP”. Leaders declared that the eastern region polling will play an important role towards this goal. According to SKM leader Hannan Mollah, farmers have been forced to take this step of not voting for the ruling regime, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the Assembly Elections after the government failed to deliver on its written promises from December 2021. “The government has broken its promise. It neither formed a committee on MSP, nor withdrew the lawsuits filed against the farmers during the agitation, nor provided assistance [compensation] to the relatives of martyred farmers,” said Mollah. Further, he pointed out that Union Minister Ajay Mishra, the alleged accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre, retains his position in the Cabinet. Although this demand was not included in the written assurance, farmers condemned the speedy bail given to his son and co-accused Ashish, and that this bail was not contested by the government.

The CJP was the first to bring to the attention of the Election Commission of India (ECI) as well as the State Election Commission (SEC), Uttar Pradesh, some reports received from the ground during polling in different phases of the Assembly elections. While the veracity of these claims of alleged bogus voting, malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), and threatening of voters could not be ascertained, CJP has sought an inquiry into these incidents.