Akhilesh, Azam allege  rigging, use of unfair  means in elections

| | Lucknow
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Akhilesh, Azam allege  rigging, use of unfair  means in elections

Monday, 27 June 2022 | PNS | Lucknow

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and senior party leader Azam Khan alleged large-scale rigging and use of unfair means in the Azamgarh and Rampur bypolls. Khan demanded that the elections be conducted under the watchful eye of a global body such as the International Court of Justice for a free and fair democratic process.

Former CM Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the BJP won with deceit. “The Samajwadi Party contested the elections in Rampur and Azamgarh with full strength and the electorate in both the constituencies were favourably inclined towards the party. However, nothing worked as the voters were intimidated and prevented from casting their votes. A large number of SP workers and polling agents were illegally detained at police stations,” Yadav alleged.

Yadav said that at a polling booth in Rampur with 900 Muslim votes, only six votes were cast while at another booth with 500 Muslim votes, only one vote was cast. 

“This is a mockery of elections and democracy. By no stretch of imagination this can be termed as an election where the democracy has been mutilated and voters shown contempt,” the SP chief alleged.

Questioning the celebration of victory in Rampur and Azamgarh  by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the SP chief said: “The electorate of Rampur and Azamgarh are at their wits’ end over the celebration of victory by  the BJP and its rank and file. People of UP will give a befitting lesson to the arrogance of the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.”

The SP chief alleged that the BJP’s double-engine government has ruined millions of poor people who are staring at a bleak future.  He also alleged that the development process  in the state has come to a grinding halt since the BJP came to power in 2017.

Meanwhile, Azam Khan claimed that the SP had not lost but won by a margin of over 2.5 lakh votes. Addressing a meeting of party workers at the district office after the results were announced on Sunday, Khan alleged rigging in the election and said the state machinery was misused and voters were prevented from exercising their franchise.

“Let there be free and fair elections; if we lose, I will quit electoral politics forever. We are happy in our defeat and I know that the BJP is not happy with its victory as it has not been achieved by fair means. The SP was also in power and conducted the elections but never indulged in such vendetta against our political rivals,” the SP leader said.

“Let the record of the previous Lok Sabha and assembly elections be examined. As per the voting patterns and the support base of the Samajwadi Party and votes used to be polled by it will show that we have won the elections by at least 2.5 lakh votes.  We lost as the supporters of the SP were prevented from casting their votes. The voters were assaulted, intimidated and unlawfully detained in police stations on the day of polling,” Khan said.

Targeting the media, he said the fourth estate failed to discharge its duty. He also trained his guns at the police and said the cops responsible for maintaining law and order have been targeting the people of Rampur with specific religious identity for the last many years. “I am very disappointed by the conduct of the police as we are made to feel like foreigners in our own home land. After partition of India in 1947, a miniscule population went to Pakistan while a huge number of people stayed back,” Khan said.

“The way polls were conducted in Rampur and Azamgarh was not an election but a mockery of democracy. Only one community was targeted and detained in police stations. Local people in Rampur and Azamgarh were targeted by the police on the basis of their religious identity and were framed in false cases,” Khan alleged.

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