Akhilesh Yadav is 'confused' chief of SP, says BJP

Akhilesh had recently said that EVMs could not be relied upon and demanded that all elections in future be conducted through ballot papers.

Lucknow, Apr 17: After running a "confused" government in Uttar Pradesh for the past five years, Akhilesh Yadav is proving to be the "confused" president of Samajwadi Party, the BJP said on Monday.

"For the last five years, Akhilesh ran a 'confused' government. Now he is proving himself to be a 'confused' president of SP. In view of the pro-active welfare measures adopted by the Centre and the present UP government, rival parties do not have any option but to raise irrelevant issues," state BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla said.

His statement came in the wake of the Samajwadi Party repeatedly raising doubts on electronic voting machines and talking of forming a grand alliance (Mahagathbandhan) of anti-BJP political forces.

Shukla said for fear of BJP, SP and BSP were trying to come closer. Akhilesh had recently said that EVMs could not be relied upon and demanded that all elections in future be conducted through ballot papers.

"When will EVMs develop a snag no one can tell...you never know when the software will fail...Machines cannot be relied upon. We do not have faith in EVMs. "We have 100 per cent faith in our ballot papers and it is our demand that future elections are held using them...We do not want to go into whether EVMs are good or bad," the former chief minister had said.

The SP chief had also said that if there was a possibility of formation of a grand alliance, his party will play an important role. "In the days to come, SP will play a key role if there is a move to form a grand alliance against BJP," he had said last week.

PTI