Chief Minister himself involved: Akhilesh Yadav targets Yogi Adityanath over SIR row

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday attacked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the BJP for defending the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, alleging that they were themselves "involved in the scam".

He made the remarks hours after Adityanath asked opposition parties to apologise to the nation for criticising the poll panel and the revision exercise, and accused them of weakening democratic institutions.

Speaking to reporters, Yadav also alleged that names were removed from electoral rolls without notice, preventing some people who had voted in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from casting their ballots in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

He further criticised the state government on issues including waterlogging in Gorakhpur, spending on development in Prayagraj and Varanasi, and the discontinuation of the Yash Bharti Award.

"If the Election Commission is involved in a scam and the chief minister is speaking in support of the Commission, it means the chief minister himself is involved in the scam. The entire BJP is involved in the scam," he said.

Yadav said, "In 2017, we did not pay attention as we trusted the Election Commission to be impartial and not compromise its credibility. But when the results came in 2022, I remember saying at our national convention that the Election Commission and officials deliberately deleted Samajwadi Party votes."

He added, "People who had voted in 2019 were not allowed to vote in 2022 -- without notice and without following any rule or law." He also alleged that during by-elections, voters were stopped from reaching polling booths by blocking roads and by police personnel deployed in plain clothes.

On the ongoing Special Intensive Revision, Yadav alleged that Form 7, which is used to apply for deletion of names from electoral rolls, had been misused in Uttar Pradesh.

"The BJP engaged a private company and sent them from village to village to get Form 7 applications filled. Do you think people printed these forms in villages?" he said. He added, "In Lucknow, more than 100 Form 7 applications were filled by one person, when the rule says no more than five forms can be filled with one signature. As a result, more than 100 votes were deleted." Urging the Election Commission to act independently, he said, "It is an easy thing: protect your credibility, Election Commission. Do not work at anyone's behest. There are countless examples before you. Our people had filed complaints. There is a pile of complaints, but no action was taken," and added that if action had been taken, the Commission's credibility would not have been questioned.

On development issues, Yadav criticised the handling of waterlogging in Gorakhpur and said the city should have had a metro system instead of boats during the flooding.

"People are talking about using boats. Why should boats be used in Gorakhpur? A metro was supposed to run here. Instead, boats are plying there," he said. He also alleged that large amounts of money were spent for the development of Prayagraj and Varanasi without producing the promised results.

Yadav also criticised the government's decision to stop the Yash Bharti Award, the highest civilian honour in Uttar Pradesh. "The government has stopped honourarium, and programmes and schemes meant to honour people. The Yash Bharti Award was stopped. I want to honour people from across the state: whether they are poets, sportspersons, litterateurs, people associated with art, theatre or the film industry," he said. He added, "Under the Samajwadi Party government, the award was Rs 11 lakh. If we form the government again, we will increase it to Rs 21 lakh. The monthly honourarium will be raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh." He said journalists were also considered for the honour, adding, "I remember that many of our journalist colleagues had received the Yash Bharti Award."

Highlighting his party's focus on sports and the welfare of sportspersons, Yadav said, "There should be no playing games with sports. Sportspersons should be honoured: budgetary provisions should be made, and financial awards should be instituted for them. If the Samajwadi Party forms the government, we will work in that direction." Overall, Yadav used the interaction to repeat his allegations over the electoral roll revision and to target the state government over governance, development and awards for achievers.