Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party has accused the BJP of sabotaging by-elections in the Rampur and Khatauli Assembly and Mainpuri parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh even as voting was underway on these seats.
The SP has alleged that its party workers were being thrown out of booths, electors were being prevented from voting to decrease the polling percentage and EVMs were malfunctioning in several areas.
The party alleged that in a polling booth in the Balpura village in Karhal, the BJP agents were preventing the Muslim voters from exercising their rights.
As the voting continued, the Samajwadi Party in a tweet alleged mismanagement and partiality by the police deployed on poll duty for the Khatauli bypoll and also sought suspension of officer Rakesh Kumar Singh for working as a 'BJP agent' and 'stopping the Muslim voters from casting their vote'.
In Bhogaon, which is under the Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, the party alleged that police were attempting to arrest booth agents in several booths at the behest of the BJP.
In a voting booth in Karhal the central security forces were harassing the public in the name of ID checks to reduce the polling percentage, the SP alleged.
Further, the SP alleged that in Jaswantnagar in Etawah district, polling was delayed in a booth because of faulty EVMs.
Tweeting a video, the party alleged that money was being distributed by a BJP booth agent in Bhogaon to influence the voting.
The series of allegations comes after RLD candidate Madan Bhaiya in Khatauli also accused the state administration of being partial towards the BJP.
Besides, the Samajwadi Party workers have also alleged that the BJP workers broke their election counter near a polling station in Rampur.
Meanwhile, a five-member delegation of the BJP reached the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission office accusing the SP of influencing the elections.
The by-election to the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat was taking place due to the demise of Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, while the bypolls in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated after SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini were disqualified following their conviction in separate cases.
In Mainpuri, SP president Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is pitted against BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya.
The BJP has fielded Akash Saxena, who is the son of former party MLA Shiv Bahadur Saxena, in Rampur Sadar against senior SP leader Azam Khan's protege Asim Raja.
In Khatauli, the fight is between Vikram Singh Saini's wife Rajkumari Saini and Madan Bhaiya from the RLD.
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