As the Election Commission on Monday rescheduled from November 13 to November 20 the assembly bypolls to all nine seats in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that this is an old trick of the BJP to avoid losing elections.
The AAP said the move has brought the credibility of EC "under question".
In a post in Hindi on X, the SP chief said, "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."
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, adding that this is BJP's old trick.
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 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."
UP Congress president Ajay Rai said his party is not contesting the bypolls in the state.
"Since we are not contesting the bypolls, so there was no need for us to make any representation to the EC for shifting bypoll dates. I am the president of the UP Congress and can talk only about UP," Rai told PTI when asked about the EC mentioning that the date for the bypolls was changed in view of the requests made by several political parties including BJP, Congress, BSP and RLD, and certain social organisations.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh alleged that the dates for the UP bypolls were deliberately postponed to favour the ruling BJP and said the move has brought the Election Commission under questioning.
"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 by-election dates for Uttar Pradesh will be extended," Singh told reporters here.
Singh said the EC's credibility was under question, as well as the rationale behind postponing the election dates in the state.
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.
