UP Legislative Council polls: Akhilesh accuses BJP of dishonesty

Hardoi: Samajwadi Party (SP) president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday took a jibe at the BJP, suggesting it won this week’s Legislative Council elections through dishonest means.

He also hit out at BSP chief Mayawati, saying when the BJP does not want to answer questions on any issue, it pushes other parties forward to do it.

Yadav, who was here to attend a private function in Harpalpur, told reporters that the BJP was indulging in dishonest practices and the party’s leaders were congratulating each other for it. “This is not the first election Uttar Pradesh has witnessed,” he added.

Accusing the BJP of misusing the government machinery in the district panchayat and block chief elections in the state, Yadav alleged that he had nothing to say about the results of the Legislative Council elections as “this is the way the BJP government functions”.

The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh on Friday won four of the five legislative council seats for which elections were held this week and one went to an Independent. Polling on three graduates and two teachers constituencies of the council was held on January 30. Counting began on Thursday evening and was completed on Friday.

The SP has nine members in the 100-member Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and needed one more to stake claim to the Leader of the Opposition’s post. The BJP’s strength in the state’s Upper House will now rise to 79.

On a question over Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati accusing the SP of insulting people of the Scheduled Castes, Yadav said, “BJP is a smart party, it does not want to answer on any issue, it brings forward other parties to do the same.”

Earlier in the day, in a series of tweets in Hindi, Mayawati said, “Ramcharitmanas and Manusmriti are not the books of the weaker and marginalised section of society, but it is the Constitution of India, in which Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar had not called them as Shudra, but as SC, ST and OBC. Therefore, the Samajwadi Party should not insult them by calling them as Shudra, nor they should defy the Constitution.”

Yadav added, “As far as the Constitution is concerned, we also said on 26th January, Republic Day, that for us socialists, if there is any religion, it is our Constitution.”

“We worship democracy and the rights that the Constitution gives us are being taken away. Where has the Constitution said that you can discriminate, where has it said that you can show religion as upper or lower,” the SP chief said.