Amidst reports of EVM fraud in the ongoing civic polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday demanded a “comprehensive probe” by the Election Commission.

Speaking to reporters in the national capital, AAP spokesperson Atishi Marlena said, “There have been many technical glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the civic polls held in Meerut and Kanpur on Wednesday.

There is one common thread everywhere when it comes to complaints against the malfunctioning of the machines… the vote always goes to ‘lotus’ (BJP’s symbol)”.

On Wednesday a video of a man in Meerut had gone viral on social media platforms. In the video a man was shown attempting to cast his vote for the BSP unsuccessfully because despite pressing his desired symbol, the vote was being cast in favour of the BJP.

“It doesn’t ever go to ‘hand’, ‘broom’ or ‘elephant’ (symbols of Congress, AAP and BSP). We demand from the Election Commission, and not the state bodies, a comprehensive probe into the matter which is being treated like an isolated incident,” Marlena was quoted by IANS.

Marlena said that the AAP in Uttar Pradesh had earlier demanded that the civic polls be conducted using ballot papers and not EVMs.