Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district over the survey of a mosque was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration "to divert attention from electoral malpractice".
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also alleged "electronic booth capturing" during the just-concluded bypolls to nine assembly seats in the state and said there would be clarity if the Election Commission can get a forensic examination of the EVMs done.
Yadav made the allegations a day after the UP bypoll results in which his party managed to win only two seats while BJP and its ally RLD bagged the other seven, including the Muslim-dominated Kundarki.
Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals in Sambhal on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Ten people have been detained and a probe was launched into the violence, an official said.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
"A serious incident occurred in Sambhal. A survey team was deliberately sent in the morning to disrupt discussions about the elections. The intention was to create chaos so that no debate on election issues could happen," Yadav claimed.
He claimed that several people were injured in the violence in Sambhal and one was killed in the violence. He also sought to know why a new survey was conducted again, and "that too in the morning and without preparation", when a survey was already done.
Notably, the district administration or police have not yet said anything about the death in Sambhal as claimed by Yadav.
"I don't want to go into the legal or procedural aspects, but the other side was not even heard. This was intentionally done to provoke emotions and avoid discussions on election rigging," Yadav said.
"What happened in Sambhal was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration to divert attention from electoral malpractices," he alleged.
Asserting that in democracy, true victory comes from the people, not the system, he said, "The new democracy created by the BJP ensures that people cannot vote while the system dominates."
He added that whenever an impartial investigation takes place, and the truth comes out through booth recordings and CCTV footage, it will be evident that "voters did not cast their votes and someone else became the voter inside the booth".
Yadav claimed that on the polling day, the police and the administration removed the Samajwadi Party's almost all booth agents and many supporters who wanted to vote.
"If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party votes didn't reach those booths and our candidate didn't get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue," he said.
"Additionally, there were two types of slips -- one with a red mark and another regular slip. We raised this issue on the voting day itself, stating that the administration had created such arrangements, leading to discrimination," Yadav alleged.
The Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Kundarki assembly bypoll Haji Rizwan too has alleged that his supporters were prevented from voting. The BJP's Ramveer Singh won the bypoll in the Kundarki seat by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
Yadav noted that the victory achieved through "deceit" is merely an "illusion" and weighs most heavily on those "orchestrating" the drama of triumph.
"This entire charade has been staged by the BJP. Such a victory morally weakens the victors, killing their conscience." He said the BJP's fear of losing became evident the day they removed "PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) employees and officials from election duty to replace them with their own people, ensuring there would be no witnesses to their malpractice".
"Knowing their intentions, we opposed the BJP's actions. But when the government and administration themselves become oppressors, who can stop the desecration of democracy?" the SP chief posed.
"This dishonesty is not new. Rigging elections has been their standard practice and we all witnessed the results on camera. Even an MLA had to face humiliation," Yadav alleged.
He demanded that the poll panel verify its records to see if the registered voters made it to the booths.
"Forensic examination of EVMs could reveal voting patterns, including instances where the same button was pressed multiple times with the same fingerprint. Reports also suggest that people who were out of the area were pre-identified and their votes were cast on their behalf. This is the new-age electronic booth capturing," Yadav claimed.
He asserted that had "PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) employees and officials not been replaced, the "BJP would have struggled to win even a single seat".
Yadav also claimed that the bypoll to Milkipur assembly seat in Ayodhya was postponed because "the government couldn't ensure manipulations there".
He stressed that a nation moves towards a democratic revolution when it loses all hope for justice. "People, enraged by inflation, unemployment, exploitation, and electoral fraud can only endure so much."
"The BJP has snatched jobs, dignity, harmony, and brotherhood from the people," Yadav said and accused the ruling party of destroying the Constitution and reservations.
"Their hunger for power has already made them sick, and now they will lose sleep as well." Yadav said he takes pity on BJP's members, but people told him that these people do not deserve it.
"If the BJP thinks these results will dishearten the PDA, they are mistaken. Injustice and oppression don't break people, they unite them," the SP chief said.
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