Samajwadi Party leader Dharmendra Yadav said he had withdrawn his election petition filed before the Allahabad High Court against Bharatiya Janata Party’s sitting Budaun MP Sanghmitra Maurya, accusing her of submitting “incorrect information” in her poll affidavit.
Sanghmitra is the daughter of Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya. In 2019, Swami Prasad Maurya was in BJP and a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. He quit the BJP in January this year, ahead of UP Assembly elections and joined the Samajwadi Party.
Sanghmitra had won the 2019 Lok Sabha election by defeating Samajwadi Party candidate Dharmendra Yadav, the then sitting MP from Budaun, with a margin of 18,000 votes.
Dharmendra Yadav is a cousin of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. After the conclusion of the 2019 general election, Dharmendra Yadav had filed the petition contending that some information provided by Sanghmitra Maurya in her election affidavit was incorrect. He had also alleged voting fraud in his petition and accused the election officials of not being fair.
Dharmendra Yadav said that he had filed an undertaking to withdraw the petition a few months ago which was accepted by the High Court on Friday last. He said that there seems to be no need for the petition now.
“Sanghmitra Maurya is in our party and to avoid a situation of differences the petition was taken back,'' he said.
Sanghamitra Maurya, reacting to the development, said, ‘‘I don’t know about personal thoughts of Dharmendra Yadav for taking back the petition. I want to say that he had accepted the defeat of 2019.”
She said, “I am a BJP MP. I have the support of the people. I have not been swayed by anyone in the past three years. If Dharmendra Yadav wants to join the BJP, he is welcome.''