Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav today accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of manipulating district panchayat elections, saying his “undemocratic behavior presents a threat” to constitutional institutions.
“The CM has crossed all limits in rigging the district panchayat chairperson elections. His undemocratic behaviour has put the state’s constitutional institutions in jeopardy “Mr. Yadav said.
In a statement, the former chief minister stated that the state administration “hijacked the mandate” by forcefully preventing candidates from the Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties from registering nominations.
He also charged the state administration with harassing SP leaders and filing bogus criminal charges against them.
“Officials have been quiet bystanders to the obstructing of the electoral process, which is a source of great concern. The Election Commission has also been rendered impotent, and the Raj Bhavan has remained deafeningly silent “he stated
Mr Yadav said that the SP candidate in Balrampur was placed under house detention and her nomination documents were stolen. According to him, BJP activists in Gorakhpur lay siege to the district collectorate’s front gate and guarded every point in the building going to the nomination chamber.
“It is shameful to have such immoral conduct in the chief minister’s home district,” said Mr Yadav, adding that the SP candidate was stopped from filing nomination in Jhansi too.
“In Varanasi, the SP candidate’s nomination paper was rejected,” he said.
Mr Yadav said that BJP activists attempted to kidnap the SP candidate in Basti in the presence of the police, and that his party’s candidate and proposers were kidnapped before nomination in Ghaziabad.
“Unfortunately, police and revenue officials in many districts were seen playing an active role in preventing SP and other opposition candidates from filing their nomination papers,” Mr Yadav said.
“The chief minister and the BJP leadership may congratulate themselves on the back for adopting such undemocratic methods to forcefully transform their failure in the district panchayat elections into triumph, but they will have to face assembly elections in the future,” he added.
People will respond in their own language to them (BJP). Mr Yadav predicted that the SP will gain 350 seats in the assembly in 2022, while the BJP would be reduced to a few seats and forced to remain in opposition.
If necessary, voting for zila panchayat chairpersons would take place on July 3.
The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission had previously said in its poll announcement that the votes will be counted on the same day.
Zila panchayat chairpersons are chosen from among the elected members of various districts’ zila panchayats.
Uttar Pradesh is divided into 75 districts. Last month, the state held four-phase panchayat elections.
