Lucknow, March 8 : Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday cried foul and leveled a serious allegation that a senior officer in the Chief Minister office was directing the district magistrates to slow down counting at places where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates were losing. In a hurriedly called press conference, Akhilesh alleged, “A principal secretary to the CM called the DMs and is directing them to slow down the counting at places where BJP candidates are loosing and to continue it till late hours.” He said that in the last election as well there were 47 places where BJP candidates won by a margin of less than 5,000 votes. “Today a truck loaded with EVMs has been caught in Varanasi. While two trucks managed to flee from the scene, one was caught. If the government is not stealing the votes it must have told where the EVMs were being taken to? The candidates and the political parties should have been informed,” he said. Akhilesh said, “Why were the EVMs moved without security? As per the guidelines if EVMs are kept in a warehouse or strong room then you cannot move without the information of the candidates. It must have been in their knowledge.” He said, “I didn’t want to comment on the exit polls, but from the exit polls which have come they want to create a perception that BJP is winning so that when they steal votes it does not become apparent. Therefore I want to appeal to the youths and farmers to maintain a strict vigil for the next two-three days.” The SP president said that the Varanasi incident was not a lone incident. “Prior to this boxes were recovered from the waste collection vehicle in Bareilly and about 500 ballot papers were recovered. Before that SDM Ghorawal in Sonbhadra district was caught with ballot papers. I want to say that this election is to save democracy , otherwise a revolution will be required to bring the change next time,” he said. He said, “How can predictions be made in the exit poll. What the leaders of the ruling party were saying is reflected in the exit polls. You have to see that the big companies which were doing the exit polls were doing it for profit? Who gave the money to companies who did the exit polls. Who funded these exit polls. If someone is carrying out such a huge exercise then who is bearing the financial burden?” Akhilesh said that the Election Commission should look into it and action should be taken against DM Varanasi. AB RKM