Visibly perturbed over the crushing defeat of the party candidate in Milkipur assembly bypoll, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of “misusing” the electoral machinery to win elections.
“The true victory of PDA (Pichhda Dalit Alpsankhyak) in Ayodhya in the Lok Sabha elections is many times greater than their false victory in the Milkipur assembly and will always be so,” he said.
In a post on X, Yadav also said, “The BJP cannot face the growing power of PDA on the basis of votes, that is why it tries to win by misusing the electoral machinery.”
“The level of manipulation of officials required to carry out such electoral fraud may be possible in one assembly constituency, but this ‘chaar sau beesee’ (apparently referring to cheating) will not work in 403 assembly constituencies. The BJP members also know this, that is why the BJP members postponed the by-election of Milkipur,” he added.
“This is a false victory, which the BJP will never be able to celebrate by looking into their own eyes in the mirror. Their guilt and the fear of future defeat will keep them awake,” Yadav said.
The officials who have committed the crime of electoral fraud will be punished sooner or later, Yadav added.
“The BJP will use them and then let them go, they will not become their shield. When they lose their jobs and pension, they will alone suffer the punishment of a life of humiliation among their children, family and society,” the SP chief said.
The Milkipur bypoll was necessitated after SP’s Awadhesh Prasad vacated his assembly seat following his election to the Lok Sabha last year.
While the SP was looking to retain the seat, the BJP saw the election as an opportunity to avenge its loss in Faizabad in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls, Milkipur was the only seat the BJP lost in the Ayodhya district. While the Bahujan Samaj Party did not contest the bypoll, the Congress backed its alliance partner SP.