Gorakhpur, Mar 14: With the BJP's Upendra Dutt Shukla emerging as the leading candidate from Gorakhpur after initial counting of votes, the Samajwadi Party nominee Praveen Nishad was quick to rake the EVM controversy. (For live results and updates, click here)

Nishad, while speaking to reporters, attributed his trail to the alleged fraud in the electronic voting machine. "The EVMs were rigged in favour of the BJP. There is no other way I could lose the elections. All communities in Gorakhpur were supporting me," he said while speaking to reporters.

"This has happened with me earlier as well. The EVMs were rigged to defeat me in the 2017 polls too," said Nishad, who contested on the Nishad Party ticket from Gorakhpur assembly seat in the legislative elections held last year.

The allegations of rigged EVMs were flouted by the Opposition last year after the BJP won the UP assembly elections with a three-fourth majority.

Month later, the Election Commission organised an 'EVM hackathon' to allay fears doubts related to the machine's alleged malfunction. However, no major political party accepted the challenge to hack the machines as the Commission had denied the permission to replace its motherboard.

The Aam Aadmi Party accused the Commission of misleading the people, saying, "Without replacing the motherboard, how could the EVM be hacked?"

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 14, 2018 11:09 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).