UP poll results not verdict of people: Mamata

Kolkata, March 11 A day after BJP registered a comfortable victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that the results do not reflect the verdict of the people, as she demanded forensic test of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the polls.

Speaking to the media in the Assembly, Banerjee said, "This is not the verdict of the people. BJP manipulated votes and won in four states (Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur)."

"There have been incidents of EVM loot in Uttar Pradesh. The District Magistrate of Banaras has been transferred. That is what I have come to know from the newspapers. Why were there no forensic test of the EVMs after that?

"Akhilesh (Yadav) has been forced to accept defeat. But this is not the verdict of the people. This is the verdict of mechanical manipulation," said Banerjee, who had campaigned in Uttar Pradesh in favour of Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav.

The Chief Minister also consoled Yadav and asked him not to be disappointed.

"This is not the end of everything. They have won some states and are behaving in such a way that they have won the Lok Sabha elections. This is not correct. The 2024 elections will not be that easy," the Trinamool Congress leader said.

Inviting all the like-minded parties to form an alliance to fight the BJP, Banerjee said, "There is no reason for depending on Congress any more. We will have to look for a better alternative to defeat the BJP."