Akhilesh: BJP unnerved by panchayat poll rout

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said on Friday that the BJP has been unnerved by the huge success of his party candidates in the panchayat elections. He alleged that jittery over the poll rout, the ruling party was misusing the official machinery to win the block pramukh and district panchayat chairman polls by using money and muscle power.

“Despite lack of numbers to win the elections, the BJP is terrorising the members of district panchayats and members of kshetra panchayat samitis to vote for its candidates,” Yadav alleged, adding: “The BJP has let loose the repression which is a flagrant violation of the political executive power and a threat to democracy.”

Listing the districts, Yadav said the elected members of the Samajwadi Party were being persecuted in Auraiya, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Etah, Hapur, Siddharth Nagar, Rampur, Gorakhpur and Farrukhabad among other districts. He said even the family members of the elected members had not been spared and they were being harassed by the police and district administration.

He said a delegation of the Samajwadi Party had met the DGP on June 16 to lodge a complaint, but in vain.

“The SP leaders complained to the DGP that a team of Revenue department officials raided the house of elected member of district panchayats Avnesh Khatik and misbehaved with him. The officials asked him to fall in line, otherwise he would be framed in many cases,” Yadav alleged.

He further alleged that the BJP MLA from Khajni in Gorakhpur abducted the son of an elected member of district panchayat as the daughter-in-law of the MLA is also in the poll fray. He charged that the police adopted numerous methods to harass the elected members and their family members.

Yadav said if the BJP wanted to win the panchayat elections by unleashing the state terror, it would have to face the ire of the people who would give it a befitting reply in the 2022 UP Assembly elections.