Lucknow, March 8 : Leveling a serious allegation that the Chief Minister’s office is trying to influence counting of votes, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav said that elections are the last battle of democracy and there is a need to stand up to save democracy. “I have definite information that the Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary has asked all the district officials to slow down the counting of votes where BJP is losing,” Yadav told reporters here on Tuesday and even named the Varanasi DM for irregularities. He even said that EVMs were taken away by the officials on the direction of their political masters. “One vehicle carrying EVM was caught in Banaras, while two vehicles escaped. The needle of suspicion is on the DM of Varanasi as to why no action is taken against the persons who removed the EVMs from the custody,” he said. The former Chief Minister said that three boxes were seized in Varanasi carrying EVM machines and over 500 ballot papers were seized in Bareilly. He even gave the number of a garbage vehicle (UP 25 DT 9166) from which he said EVMs were recovered. “The people who caught the vehicle informed the Ghoraval’s SDM but the officials took no action. So, it shows that officials are working on the directions of the Principal Secretary of the Chief Minister,” Yadav said. He appealed to the party workers to stage a dharna outside the strong rooms where EVMs are kept. “Now the EVMs have to be protected for the next two days. Stage dharma outside the strong rooms as farmers staged dharna in UP-Delhi border,” he said and added: “ Save your vote if you have voted for Samajwadi Party as everyone will have to come forward to save democracy.” The Samajwadi Party has also demanded that jammers should be installed outside counting centres so that no one can hack the EVMs. “BJP can go to any extent to win UP. They can use technology available under sky to manipulate EVMs. Therefore, our demand is to install jammers so that hacking (of EVMs) could be prevented,” he said. MB RKM