Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav arrived in Saifi on Monday with his wife and Samajwadi Party’s Mainpuri candidate Dimple Yadav to vote in the high-octane Lok Sabha seat by-poll, previously held by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. Following his vote, Akhilesh Yadav held a press conference in which he accused the administration of electoral malpractice and stated that it was acting at the behest of the ruling party.
The Samajwadi Party president slammed the Yogi Adityanath government, claiming that the police had been told not to allow SP workers to vote in Mainpuri and Rampur. “Police had been called in to prevent party supporters from attending our meeting… “Central forces have been deployed, but they are being guided by local police,” Yadav said, accusing the UP police of being “biased and misleading central forces.”
He also slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya, claiming that the party hired an SP candidate because they did not have anyone in Mainpuri. “We will win in Mainpuri because Netaji worked for Mainpuri,” he said, expressing confidence that the Yadav family’s stronghold seat, from which his wife is running, would be retained.
Yadav went on to say that “BJP workers were causing a ruckus and framing SP counterparts by wearing the party’s symbolic red cap.” He also called the Election Commission’s “silence” into question, saying, “We are forced to demand army deployment in Rampur for a free and fair election.” Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh’s uncle, had previously claimed electoral malpractice and that the police were preventing Samajwadi Party supporters from voting.
Bye-elections are taking place in four states, in addition to UP’s Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, Rampur Sadar, and Khatauli Assembly seats. The results will be announced on December 8, along with those from Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
