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On counting day eve, Samajwadi Party writes to CEC, demands cancellation of Rampur bypoll
In the letter to chief election commissioner Rajeev Kumar, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav alleged large-scale rigging in the Rampur bypoll
Samajwadi Party (SP) national chief general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav has written a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC), demanding cancellation of the Rampur Sadar assembly bypoll and repolling there. The by-election was held on December 5.
The demand comes a day before the counting of votes for bypolls to the Mainpuri Lok Sabha and the Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly seats.
In the letter to chief election commissioner Rajeev Kumar, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav alleged large-scale rigging in the Rampur bypoll, the Samajwadi Party said in a press statement on Wednesday.
Voters were prevented from voting and many people were injured due to police brutality, he alleged. Yadav also attached purported photographs of police brutality with his letter.
The voter turnout in the Rampur Sadar assembly bypoll was much less than the previous elections, he said. The Election Commission of India (ECI) should order re-polling in the assembly constituency, he demanded.
Polling was sluggish in Rampur Sadar with the segment registering around 33.94% turnout on December 5.
In comparison, the turnout at the Rampur Sadar segment during the Rampur Lok Sabha bypolls in June was 41% while 56.35% voted during the 2022 assembly elections earlier this year.
Earlier in the day, Samajwadi Party leader Manoj Pandey alleged voters in Rampur Sadar were not permitted to exercise their franchise by police personnel on poll duty.
The police were deployed outside the houses of SP supporters and they were not permitted to venture out to vote, Pandey said at a press conference the SP state unit office in Lucknow.
Pandey also claimed the winter session of the state assembly was suddenly adjourned as the state government did not want the opposition to raise public issues on the floor of the assembly.
