Kanpur: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday accused the BJP of defending the Election Commission amid opposition protests, alleging that electoral authorities and the administration had helped the BJP manipulate voter lists and election results.Akhilesh, who was in Saifai to mark the death anniversary of his father and SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, questioned why the BJP was defending the poll panel.He said several parties had questioned the chief election commissioner and sought his resignation. He said the EC is a constitutional institution responsible for making impartial decisions and maintaining its credibility, alleging that the BJP wanted to restrict voting rights to its members.“The fight will continue until we remove the BJP from power. If the BJP goes, the Election Commission will also be reformed. For making this possible, people will have to cast each and every vote against the BJP,” he said.Akhilesh alleged that voters had been denied their rights during bypolls and that attempts were made during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to delete SP supporters from electoral rolls. He said the SP’s PDA praharis caught people filing Form-7 applications to remove names, including through a BJP office.In Sultanpur, he alleged that fake signatures of Nandlal Nishad, who used a thumb impression and did not know how to sign, were used on applications to delete the names of several SP voters. He also claimed that more than 100 applications were filed in Dashrath’s name in Lucknow’s Sarojini Nagar Assembly constituency, although one person could submit no more than five applications.Referring to Mirapur, he alleged that a police officer pointed a revolver and tried to stop people, particularly women, from voting. He also accused plainclothes police personnel of casting votes at several places.Akhilesh alleged that technology was being used centrally to determine whose names appeared on voter lists, warning that deletion from the rolls could deprive people of government welfare schemes and other facilities.He further claimed that Didi had deliberately been made to lose an election in West Bengal, which he alleged had been “looted” through the deployment of more than 300,000 personnel.Akhilesh, along with almost the entire Yadav family, paid tribute at the memorial of the SP patriarch on Saturday. Akhilesh reached Saifai in the morning, where his wife and Mainpuri MP Dimple, uncle Shivpal, Mainpuri’s Karhal Assembly MLA Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, other family members and party leaders were also present.A Socialist Museum is being built there in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s memory.
