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Election Commission should conduct repolling in Rampur Sadar: Akhilesh Yadav
The BJP’s Akash Saxena defeated Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan’s nominee Asim Raza by a margin of 34,000 votes in Rampur Sadar
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should conduct repolling in the Rampur Sadar assembly constituency where his party lost to the BJP on Thursday.
“The Election Commission should get repolling done in Rampur. Our chief national general secretary (Ram Gopal Yadav) had already written a letter to the EC, narrating how the elections were not free and fair and that repolling should be held,” he said to newspersons in Mainpuri.
“What had happened in Rampur Sadar had also occurred in the Rampur Lok Sabha (consstituency) six months back. People were not allowed to go out to vote, they were intimidated, prevented from going to vote,” Akhilesh Yadav alleged.
In June, the BJP had wrested the Rampur Lok Sabha seat from the SP.
“What is hurtful is that despite repeated pleas to the ECI for action against the government and administration over malpractices, no appropriate action was taken. The government did not want Azam Khan to win the seat. That’s why so much force was deployed that people could not come out to vote,” he said.
“The Election Commission should look into why extra force was deployed on those booths, where the SP used to get more votes, by declaring them sensitive. People were beaten up. If the EC does not take care of all this, then whom do we have faith in?” the SP chief said to a news channel.
Samajwadi Party Rampur district president Virendra Goel said: “Even before the bypoll, Azam Khan saheb had said the BJP candidate should be declared the winner unopposed.”
Samajwadi Party senior leader Udaiveer Singh said: “Even before the letter by Ram Gopal Yadavji to the ECI, the SP had made so many tweets tagging the ECI on the polling day. Isn’t just 33% voters turnout an indication that people were not allowed to vote?”
The bypoll to the Rampur Sadar assembly seat, considered Azam Khan’s stronghold, was necessitated after the SP leader was sentenced to three years in jail in a hate speech case, and subsequently disqualified as MLA.
The BJP’s Akash Saxena defeated Azam’s nominee Asim Raza by a margin of 34,000 votes.
Saxena, 47, had contested from Rampur Sadar against Azam Khan, 73, in the 2022 assembly elections, but lost. Khan had won the seat for the 10th time in March despite contesting from behind bars.
Saxena has become the first non-Muslim MLA from Rampur Sadar.
Rampur Sadar has more than 50% Muslim voters and the BJP had never emerged victorious here.
