Akhilesh Yadav alleges 'major SIR scam' in UP; accuses EC of colluding with BJP

LUCKNOW: After the poor performance of the opposition bloc in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections, the Samajwadi Party has intensified its tirade against the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, with party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleging irregularities in SIR here on Saturday. He accused the Election Commission of India of working in collusion with the ruling party and cooking up a major scam in the form of SIR. The SP chief alleged that in Assembly seats where the party was strong and had emerged victorious, nearly 50,000 votes were being deleted. Such preparations are underway in UP and West Bengal, he claimed. Akhilesh said, Right now, we are entangled in SIR. We will have to fight the paper battle as well; we have to win elections. Taking a veiled jibe at the attire of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Akhilesh said he was ready to jump in the ring whenever asked, but some peoples attire was such that they would not even be able to jump. Akhilesh Yadav was interacting with media persons on SP patriarch late Mulayam Singh Yadavs 85th birth anniversary here on Saturday. We have seen the role of the Election Commission in the by-elections. In 2022, voters' names were removed on a large scale. The Election Commission should issue SOPs to political parties about what to do and how to do it, he said, demanding an extension of the time allotted for conducting SIR. UP is the biggest state and 415 days are left for the UP Assembly election. There is a conspiracy to remove more than 50,000 names from every assembly in UP and West Bengal. We are prepared for this. We will work hard to save democracy, he asserted. He added that contrary to the Election Commissions claim that 99 per cent of people had received the counting form, BLOs were not visiting Dalit and Muslim-populated areas. BLOs sit at ruling party leaders' places and distribute forms from there, alleged the SP chief. He also claimed that Booth Level Agents of political parties were not receiving training anywhere in UP. There is so much pressure on BLOs that they have committed suicide in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. There is no preparation. BLOs are being pressured, he said. The SP chief further accused the present dispensation of indulging in corruption. The government has no time left now. They say they will clean rivers, Mother Ganga will now go till Bengal. They will talk about Vision-2047 and discuss old issues, but won't talk about the present circumstances, he said. Calling the Union government a failure, Akhilesh said it had failed on every issue from the dollar to foreign policy. Everything is running under industrialists' control. We lost one pilot, and if we say something, they call us traitors, he added.