Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday accused the BJP of electoral manipulation and malpractice. He claimed the party uses unfair tactics to win elections and coerces officials into dishonest practices. Yadav also urged the Election Commission to ensure a fair process while announcing his party’s candidates for upcoming constituency polls.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday visited Abhinandan Resort on Mohan Road near Ghurghuri Talab in the Malihabad assembly constituency to attend the Terahvi (thirteenth-day ritual) of the late Ram Gopal Kanojia, father of Samajwadi Party leader Sonu Kanojia.
Speaking to the mediapersons later, Akhilesh Yadav launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming it cannot win elections without resorting to manipulation and malpractice.
The SP president also accused the BJP of fuelling unemployment and inflation, failing to double farmers' incomes, and turning the Lucknow Development Authority into a hub of corruption.
He alleged that officials in the education department, including District Inspectors of Schools (DIOS) and Basic Shiksha Adhikaris (BSA), were being coerced into dishonest practices ahead of the Teachers' and Graduates' constituency elections and were threatening teachers over the phone.
He urged the Election Commission to ensure a free and fair process, warning that officials acting as political operatives rather than impartial civil servants risked imprisonment if the government changed.
Akhilesh Yadav also claimed that the voter list, which is not generally available, had reached BJP ministers and leaders. He pointed to automated voice calls as evidence that the data had been accessed, possibly through a private firm.
He advised party workers to remain vigilant, record such calls, and noted that the party already possessed recordings from earlier elections in Ayodhya and Faizabad.
During the interaction, Akhilesh Yadav announced the Samajwadi Party's candidates for the Graduate and Teachers' constituencies. For the Graduate seats, the nominees are Shashank Yadav (Agra-Aligarh), Kanti Singh (Lucknow), Man Singh (Allahabad-Jhansi), Ashutosh Sinha (Varanasi-Mirzapur), and Pramendra Singh (Meerut-Saharanpur). For the Teachers' constituencies, the candidates are Akash Agarwal (Agra-Aligarh), Sushil Patel (Lucknow), Sanjayan Tripathi (Gorakhpur-Faizabad), Haji Mohammad Danish Akhtar (Bareilly-Moradabad), Lal Bihari Yadav (Varanasi-Mirzapur), and Nitin Tomar (Meerut-Ghaziabad).
Highlighting alleged irregularities in the electoral roll, Akhilesh Yadav questioned how one individual could be registered with multiple votes. He described the enumeration process - which cost crores and claimed the lives of 29 Booth Level Officers - as a massive blunder rather than a minor error, as termed by the Election Commission.
He credited the party's PDA Prahari initiative with forcing the Commission to acknowledge errors and accused the BJP of colluding with the poll panel whenever it sensed defeat.