Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to win the bypolls to 10 assembly seats by deceit and by threatening officials and voters of dire consequences.
“Reports coming from the ground are very alarming. Officers are working under duress as they are being intimidated by the ruling party leaders. They have been asked to favour BJP candidates. In spite of all this terror tactics, the situation is very bad for the BJP,” Akhilesh Yadav said in a written statement issued in Lucknow on Thursday.
The SP chief said that gram pradhans and block pramukhs were being threatened with dire consequences if they did not support the BJP candidates in the by-elections.
Akhilesh said that people were still talking about development works done by the Samajwadi Party regime.
“The BJP has failed to impress the people with its work as it has been exposed that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has only inaugurated the previous government’s projects,”  the SP chief said.
“In this scenario the onus is on the Election Commission to ensure free and fair polls in UP. The Election Commission should also ensure that officers work with freedom,” he added.
Akhilesh Yadav further said that the BJP leadership was aware that anger was brewing against them.
“The law and order situation in the state is going from bad to worse. Prices of essential commodities have sky-rocketed. The poor are being killed in fake encounters while farmers are being deprived of remunerative prices of their produce,” he said.
The SP chief is scheduled to visit Rampur on October 19 and address an election rally in favour of party candidate Tanzeem Fatma, the wife of SP MP Mohammad Azam Khan.
The by-elections will be held on October 21 and counting of votes will be taken up on October 24.