Ghaziabad: Akhilesh Yadav slams BJP over change in bypoll date

Ghaziabad: Ahead of the upcoming bypoll, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), especially accusing it of getting the poll date delayed to prevent voting of migrant workers who have come to their homes for the festival season.

Akhilesh, the former Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister, held a meeting in Ghaziabad, with Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) blocleaders from his own partyand Congress at a venue in Govindpuram in the afternoon.

On revised poll dates, Akhilesh said the migrant workers have come back home for Diwali, Bhai Dooj and Chhath Puja festivities and had planned that they will vote before they return.

“The BJP got a hint that people will not vote for them and this may also work against them during the assembly election in Maharashtra. So, they got the election delayed and got the dates changed. Why did this happen? The BJP must be doing some special preparation and this is to bring forward the police… So, they do not want casting of votes. They must be deploying police force at identified booths to prevent voting. They knew that those who came back home would have caused loss to the BJP,” Akhilesh told mediapersons.

He exuded confidence that the INDIA bloc will win all the nine assembly seats in the upcoming bypolls.

On Monday, the Election Commission of India (EC) revised the polling day to November 20 from November 13. The counting date, however, remains November 23. Overall, polling day for 14 assembly seats for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala were revised.

The seats in UP include Meerapura, Kundarki, Ghaziabad, Khair, Karhal, Shishamau, Phulpur, Katehari and Majhawan. The Ghaziabad assembly seat got vacated after sitting MLA Atul Garg got elected to Lok Sabha.

Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Monday approved new guidelines for selection and appointment of the state’s police chief (director general of police – DGP) by a committee chaired by a retired high court judge. The officer will have a minimum tenure of two years in UP and only the officer having a service period of at least six months left, can be appointed to this post.

“This two years rule indicates that all is not well in Lucknow and Delhi. This state’s new practice of ‘acting DGP’ has left many aspiring officers in waiting. They are not unhappy with it. This is just done to violate law and to make someone close to them sit at the position. Those, who do not know if they would stay in power for two years, are making new rules for two years,” Akhilesh remarked.

About the issue of FIRs and police action against journalists and also lawyers in the courtroom in Ghaziabad, he said: “Nowadays, journalists have been jailed and the media is working under pressure. What happened in court with lawyers was avoidable and talks should have been held at appropriate forums. Police just vented out their anger.”

For Ghaziabad assembly seat, 14 candidates are left in fray that include names of Singh Raj from the SP, Ravi Kumar from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Sanjeev Sharma from the BJP and Satyapal Chaudhary from the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) among others.

Meanwhile, the BJP office bearers said that the SP chief seems to be fearful of losing the elections, especially after the BJP’s win in Haryana state polls.

“The decision to delay the polling date was announced by the ECI after representations given by different parties, and Akhilesh must respect the decision. The law and order model during his tenure in UP and the one in operation at present has vast contrast. The present law and order model in UP is appreciated everywhere. The two-year rule for the DGP in UP will give enough time to officers to review and chalk out better strategies to deal with law and order situations,” said Chandra Mohan, state secretary, BJP’s state unit.