UP CM, BJP speak in support of EC as they are involved in the 'scam' themselves: Akhilesh
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the BJP of defending the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls because they were themselves "involved in the scam".
Yadav was speaking to reporters at the party headquarters here, hours after Adityanath defended the Election Commission and asked opposition parties to apologise for their criticism of the poll panel and the SIR exercise.
"If the Election Commission is involved in a scam and the chief minister is speaking in support of the Commission, it means the chief minister himself is involved in the scam. The entire BJP is involved in the scam," Yadav said.
He alleged that voters who had cast their ballots in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were denied the opportunity to vote in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls after their names were removed from electoral rolls without notice.
"In 2017, we did not pay attention as we trusted the Election Commission to be impartial and not compromise its credibility. But when the results came in 2022, I remember saying at our national convention that the Election Commission and officials deliberately deleted Samajwadi Party votes," he said.
"People who had voted in 2019 were not allowed to vote in 2022 -- without notice and without following any rule or law," he alleged.
Yadav also alleged that during by-elections, voters were prevented from reaching polling booths by blocked roads and police personnel deployed in plain clothes.
On the ongoing SIR exercise, he alleged that Form 7, which is used for applications seeking deletion of names from electoral rolls, had been misused in Uttar Pradesh.
"The BJP engaged a private company and sent them from village to village to get Form 7 applications filled. Do you think people printed these forms in villages?" he alleged.
He claimed that in Lucknow, more than 100 Form 7 applications were filled by one person, despite the rule that no more than five forms can be filled with one signature.
"As a result, more than 100 votes were deleted," he alleged.
Yadav urged the Election Commission to protect its credibility and function independently.
"It is an easy thing: protect your credibility, Election Commission. Do not work at anyone's behest. There are countless examples before you. Our people had filed complaints. There is a pile of complaints, but no action was taken," he said.
He alleged that the Commission's credibility would not have come under question had it acted on the complaints.
Yadav also criticised the state government's handling of waterlogging in Gorakhpur, saying the city should have had a metro system instead of boats during flooding.
"People are talking about using boats. Why should boats be used in Gorakhpur? A metro was supposed to run here. Instead, boats are plying there," he said.
He alleged that large sums had been spent on the development of Prayagraj and Varanasi without producing the promised results.
Yadav also criticised the discontinuation of the Yash Bharti Award, Uttar Pradesh's highest civilian honour.
"The government has stopped honourarium, and programmes and schemes meant to honour people. The Yash Bharti Award was stopped. I want to honour people from across the state: whether they are poets, sportspersons, litterateurs, people associated with art, theatre or the film industry," he said.
Yadav said the award carried a prize of Rs 11 lakh under the Samajwadi Party government and promised to increase it to Rs 21 lakh if his party returned to power. He also said the monthly honourarium would be raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
He noted that journalists had also received the Yash Bharti Award in the past.
On sports, Yadav said his party would focus on the welfare of sportspersons and make budgetary provisions and financial awards for them if it returned to power.
"There should be no playing games with sports. Sportspersons should be honoured: budgetary provisions should be made, and financial awards should be instituted for them. If the Samajwadi Party forms the government, we will work in that direction," he said.
