Akhilesh accuses UP CM of pressuring officials to cut SP votes through SIR

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of exerting pressure on officials to remove Samajwadi Party supporters from the voters list under the guise of the Special Intensive Revision exercise.

Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the Samajwadi Party legislature party at the party’s state headquarters in Lucknow, Yadav alleged that the chief minister was asking officials to find faults and delete the votes of Samajwadi Party supporters wherever he visited. He claimed the exercise was being used selectively to target opposition voters.

Yadav questioned claims that four crore voters had already been deleted, saying neither the Election Commission nor political parties had received official figures. He alleged that BJP leaders and MLAs were holding late night meetings with private companies to manipulate data to match the figure being circulated. He said if four crore votes were indeed cut, it would mean an average deletion of 84,000 votes in each of the 403 assembly constituencies, a move he claimed would politically hurt the BJP.

Yadav said the BJP government was avoiding discussion on public issues and instead wanted debates on slogans inside the Assembly. He alleged that the ruling party was afraid of people’s issues and was trying to divert attention. He said Samajwadi Party MLAs were fully prepared to raise public concerns in the House.

He said the legislators’ meeting discussed several issues to be raised in the Assembly, including concerns over the codeine based cough syrup racket. He alleged that a massive scam originating from Varanasi had spread across Uttar Pradesh, the country and even abroad, involving hundreds of companies and amounting to thousands of crores. He claimed officials tasked with assessing properties linked to the scam were absconding or under pressure and journalists were being threatened. He demanded security for journalists reporting on the issue.