BJP inciting riots in U.P. during bypolls for political advantage, says Akhilesh 

Akhilesh Yadav said the SP win all the nine seats in the bypolls. He alleged that the bypoll on the Milkipur seat in Ayodhya was postponed after the BJP’s internal survey predicted the party’s loss.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday (October 21, 2024) said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is “deliberately inciting riots” in the State to gain “political advantage” ahead of the byelections on nine Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. He said the SP-led alliance candidates will win all the seats.

“The BJP caused the riots because elections are coming. The party has no answer to the people’s questions. Inflation and unemployment are going up. The BJP has stopped the development that socialists started in the State,” said Mr. Yadav, who accompanied Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, the SP nominee who filed his candidature from the Karhal seat.

Mr. Yadav said SP will win the bypolls by “huge margins”. “In Karhal, Tej Pratap Yadav will win with historic votes,” said the SP chief, whose election to the Lok Sabha from Kannauj necessitated the Karhal bypoll.

Also read | Samajwadi Party declares candidates for six by-poll seats in U.P. 

The leader said that talks with the Congress, an ally in the INDIA bloc, are on over seat-sharing for the bypolls.

Mr. Yadav alleged that the bypoll on the Milkipur seat in Ayodhya district was postponed after the BJP’s internal survey predicted the party’s loss. “When an internal survey showed that the BJP was losing, the Chief Minister held repeated programmes and then conducted a survey. In that too, the BJP was losing,” he said.

The Milkipur Assembly seat fell vacant after then SP MLA Awadhesh Prasad won the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in the general election. Milkipur falls under the Faizabad seat which also comprises Ayodhya, where the Ram Temple was built. The Election Commission cited a court case and did not announce the bypoll.

Mr. Tej Pratap, who hails from the party’s first family, hoped people in Karhal will support the party as they did in previous elections. In the 2022 Assembly poll, the SP chief defeated then Union Minister S.P. Singh Baghel by roughly 68,000 votes. SP Lok Sabha members Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav and senior leader Shivpal Singh Yadav were also present when the candidate filed his nomination.

Apart from Karhal, Khair, Ghaziabad, Phulpur, Majhawan, Kundarki, Katehari, Meerapur and Sishamau are going to bypolls on November 13. Votes will be counted on November 23. 

Published - October 21, 2024 08:31 pm IST