Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of misusing the electoral machinery to win elections. His statement came after his party candidate Ajit Prasad lost to BJP’s Chandrabhanu Paswan in Milkipur by-polls by a margin of 61,639 votes.
In a message on X, Yadav claimed that the BJP was unable to face the growing power of the PDA, because of which it misused the electoral machinery. He added that the true victory of the PDA was in Ayodhya, which was a far bigger victory as compared to BJP’s win in Milkipur.
BJP cannot face the growing power of PDA: Akhilesh Yadav
Taking to X, Yadav wrote, “The BJP cannot face the growing power of PDA based on votes, that is why it tries to win by misusing the electoral machinery. The true victory of PDA in Ayodhya in the Lok Sabha elections is many times greater than their false victory in the Milkipur Assembly and will always be so.”
पीडीए की बढ़ती शक्ति का सामना भाजपा वोट के बल पर नहीं कर सकती है, इसीलिए वो चुनावी तंत्र का दुरुपयोग करके जीतने की कोशिश करती है।
ऐसी चुनावी धांधली करने के लिए जिस स्तर पर अधिकारियों की हेराफेरी करनी होती है, वो 1 विधानसभा में तो भले किसी तरह संभव है, लेकिन 403 विधानसभाओं में…
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) February 8, 2025
“The level of manipulation of officials required to carry out such electoral fraud may be possible in one assembly constituency, but this ‘chaar sau beesee’ (apparently referring to cheating) will not work in 403 assembly constituencies. The BJP members also know this, that is why the BJP members postponed the bye-election of Milkipur,” he added further.
Know why Milkipur bypoll was needed
It may be noted that the bypoll in Milkipur was needed after Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat the seta last year after his win in Lok Sabha elections. Even as the Samajwadi Party was looking to retain the seat, the BJP was looking to avenge its defeat in Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in 2024.
Milkipur was the only seat in Ayodhya district that the BJP had lost in 2022 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not contest the election at the time, while the Congress had backed the Samajwadi Party candidate