Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday hit out at the BJP over the Chandigarh mayoral polls, saying the party “wins elections by rigging".
Yadav claimed the people of Uttar Pradesh had chosen the SP in the 2022 assembly polls but “the BJP changed the result in its favour", according to a party statement.
The BJP on Tuesday swept Chandigarh mayoral polls, retaining all three posts, in a setback to the Congress-AAP alliance which has alleged tampering with ballot papers by the presiding officer.
"BJP wins elections through rigging. The latest example is from Chandigarh, where an officer acted dishonestly in front of camera and made the BJP win by cancelling the opposition's vote," Yadav was quoted as saying in the statement.
"...if there is this level of dishonesty, is there any democracy left? Earlier, BJP committed dishonesty in all the elections in Uttar Pradesh. The people of Uttar Pradesh made the Samajwadis win the 2022 assembly elections, but by dishonesty, the BJP changed the result in its favour," Yadav claimed in the statement.
Chandigarh mayoral elections have become the latest flashpoint between the BJP and opposition parties.
The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had predicted an easy victory in the 35-member House of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and had presented it as a preliminary test for the opposition 'INDIA' bloc. But BJP won all the three top posts in the elections.
Opposition councillors have alleged that presiding officer Anil Masih allegedly tampered with the ballot papers. Masih and the BJP denied this allegation.
Yadav, addressing media persons in Mainpuri, said the upcoming Lok Sabha elections are about “saving” democracy, the Constitution and the future of coming generations, as per the statement.
Asserting that the BJP government was snatching away the democratic and constitutional rights of the people, Yadav said his party was uniting the ‘PDA’ – "pichre" (meaning backward), Dalit and "alpashankhak" (meaning minority).
Only PDA will defeat BJP's NDA in Lok Sabha elections, he said.
The SP chief said the BJP was destroying the culture of “reconciliation” and “brotherhood” and was “spreading hatred” and “dividing” society. The SP was going to field strong candidates against the BJP and strengthen the INDIA bloc, Yadav said.
