SP candidate who ‘kept eye’ on EVMs with binoculars loses UP polls

ASamajwadi Party candidate, who went extra-vigilant ahead of counting of votes and kept an eye on the local election office through binoculars, has lost the Uttar Pradesh assembly poll, official results showed.

Yogesh Verma of the SP contested from Hastinapur constituency in western UP’s Meerut district where he lost to BJP’s Dinesh Khatik, the sitting MLA, by a margin of 7,312 votes, the Election Commission (EC) website showed.

Verma got 1 lakh (43.55 per cent) of the total votes counted while Khatik polled in 1.07 lakh (46.72 per cent) votes, the EC data showed.

In the wake of the exit polls and amid allegations of EVM mishandling at some places in Uttar Pradesh on March 9, Verma was seen moving in an open gypsy and using binoculars to keep an eye on the strong-rooms from a distance.

While no EVM mishandling was reported from Hastinapur during or ahead of vote counting, Verma got into news as videos of his “extra-vigilant act” surfaced on news and social media.

Another popular contestant from Hastinapur seat was Congress’ Archana Gautam, a model-actor turned politician, who appeared nowhere in the electoral battle on the seat.

Archana got 1,519 (0.66 per cent) of the votes while BSP’s Sanjeev Kumar raked in 14,240 votes, the third highest among the total eight candidates in the seat.

The BJP has retained power in Uttar Pradesh after the 2022 assembly polls, winning a majority of the 403 seats in the state and is set to continue with its Yogi Adityanath-led government once again.