Lucknow, Nov 4 (PTI) Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh Monday slammed the decision of deferring of bypolls with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleging the postponement was an old trick of the BJP to avoid losing elections.
“First the Milkipur bye-election was postponed, now the date of bye-elections for the rest of the seats has been rescheduled. The BJP was never so weak,” he said in a post in Hindi on X.
Yadav further said that if they (BJP) postpone it, they will lose even worse.
“The fact is that due to ‘maha berozgari’ (unemployment) in UP, people who go to different parts of the country for work have come to UP on Diwali and Chhath holidays. They were going to vote in the by-elections to defeat the BJP.
“As soon as the BJP understood this, it postponed the by-elections, so that people’s holidays end and they go back without casting their vote,” the former chief minister said.
The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party also questioned the postponement of polls. UP Congress spokesperson Manish Hindvi told PTI, “The religious and spiritual events… did these events appear on the horizon all of a sudden or were those already scheduled to take place? Did these people (apparently referring to the Election Commission) not cross-check the dates on a festival calendar or ‘panchaang’?” Hindvi also alleged that the deferring of polls was done at the order of the establishment. “This is only being done to frustrate the elections process, and to save the BJP from loss.” Speaking to reporters in Lucknow, Sanjay Singh said, “The dates will be announced when it is convenient for Modi ji and Yogi ji after they are done with inauguration events. If it doesn’t suit them, then there will be no Ayodhya election (Milkipur seat). When it is convenient for them, the bye-election dates for Uttar Pradesh will be extended.” He added, “This raises serious questions about the Election Commission, which extended the dates for the Uttar Pradesh bye-elections.” The Election Commission rescheduled assembly bye-elections to all nine and four seats in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, respectively, and one seat in Kerala from November 13 to November 20 in view of festivals.
Parties including the Congress, BJP, BSP and RLD had urged the poll body to reschedule the polls in view of various festivals, saying that it could impact voter turnout.
The BJP, BSP, and RLD had said that in UP, people travel for three-four days ahead of Kartik Purnima, which will be celebrated on November 15.
When asked about the SP chief’s allegations, state BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla said the matter was unnecessarily being politicised by the opposition.
“The bypoll date shift was demanded as the date coincided with Hindu festival. But Samajwadi Party has to do politics in everything. More so in this case as they are least bothered about majoritarian sentiment but about their vote bank,” he said.
In UP, the nine assembly seats going to polls include Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Karhal (Mainpuri), Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar), Ghaziabad, Majhawan (Mirzapur), Sishamau (Kanpur City), Khair (Aligarh), Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Kundarki (Moradabad).
Eight of these seats fell vacant after their MLAs were elected as Lok Sabha MPs, while bypoll is being held on the Sisamau seat due to the disqualification of SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case.
In the 2022 assembly polls, Sishamau, Katehari, Karhal, Milkipur and Kundarki were held by the SP, while the BJP had won Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair. The Meerapur seat was held by the RLD, which is now an ally of the BJP in the NDA.
The Congress is not contesting the bypolls and supporting its INDIA bloc partner SP, while the BSP is contesting solo on all nine seats. PTI ABN NAV VN VN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.