‘Wrong’: SP on EC saying allegations by Akhilesh Yadav made without affidavits
Ram Gopal Yadav also pointed out other instances in which the Samajwadi Party has given the affidavits to the EC and claimed that they, too, have been ignored.
Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Monday said that the Election Commission's statement that allegations of vote theft are baseless and given without affidavits is wrong.
Yadav made the remarks while addressing a press conference on the opposition’s reply to a similar press conference by the apex poll body, where CEC Gyanesh Kumar called the allegations of vote theft “an insult to the constitution”.
“The EC has repeatedly said that the allegations being made should be submitted in the form of an affidavit. I want to tell you, when Akhilesh Yadav said during the 2022 UP assembly election that a large number of SP supporters’ votes had been cut, the Election Commission gave a notice. Affidavits of 18,000 voters were given to the commission. You’d be surprised to know, there has been no action till date on that affidavit,” Yadav told the media, speaking in Hindi.
Ram Gopal Yadav also pointed out other instances in which the Samajwadi Party has given the affidavits to the EC and claimed that they, too, have been ignored. "So, the Election Commission saying that baseless complaints being made is wrong,” he said.
RJD responds to a possible Bihar election boycott
As the INDIA bloc got together on Monday to press again its charges of irregularities by the Election Commission, the question of whether the Opposition would boycott upcoming polls, such as in Bihar, came up.
To this, Manoj Kumar Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) responded: “You have to see the context in which (RJD leader) Tejashwi Yadav mentioned a possible boycott. We are following all the steps before any extreme step. We have already gone to the EC, and it has been stubborn so far.”
Moving to the specific question of a boycott of elections, he said, “We do as the public wants. We so far have hope from the Supreme Court. We also hope the EC wants to maintain its image of unbiasedness intact for the future. The EC should not have to assert that all parties are equal for it; that should reflect in its conduct.”
If there would indeed be a boycott, “that would be decided by the parties here after consulting with the public”, he said: “We represent the people, and the people decide.”
